“With just over one month left in the legislative session, it’s the loudest voices that will get heard,” CEA President Kate Dias told members who attended CEA’s March Madness Virtual County Forum last night. She encouraged local leaders to schedule back-home meetings, respond to CEA action alerts, and come to CEA Lobby Day to make sure lawmakers have teacher priorities top of mind as the session wraps up.
“Next Wednesday, April 8, is Lobby Day, and it’s a lot of fun,” Dias said. “Bring your colleagues up after school. It’s our opportunity to do the storytelling that’s necessary to illustrate that our issues are real and personal. The majority of our bills have zero costs associated with them, so let’s tell legislators: ‘if you say you support teachers, support us with your vote, support us with your advocacy, support us by cosponsoring bills and helping to ensure they cross the finish line.”
“We’re excited that all of our priority legislation made it out of the committee stage of the session,” said CEA Vice President Joslyn DeLancey. “Unfortunately, we just found out that the Appropriations Committee budget does not have a commitment to paid student teaching, so we will be making a mad dash at lobbying to bring that back. There was an investment in the apprenticeship program, which we do support, but that apprenticeship program doesn’t offer access for all of our students that are going into student teaching.”
DeLancey said that bills with language ensuring fair termination for teachers made it through committee and seem unlikely to be referred to other committees.
“We’re waiting for those to be called to the floor for a vote,” she said. “So, any action alert that you get on our legislative priorities is super important—make sure you send messages to your lawmakers.”
Dias said that there’s also movement on bills ensuring protections for teachers’ personal addresses from Freedom of Information requests.
“As of this moment, there are bills on both the House and Senate calendars, which is really good for us,” Dias said. “We’ve had a couple of issues recently where teachers have really felt that their personal safety was threatened, so this is a timely issue.”
She added that a bill to ensure teachers receive the full Workers’ Compensation coverage they are due, and one to ban cell phones in schools, are also on the House calendar.
“The most complex issue that is definitely moving, but we’re not entirely sure where it’s going to land, concerns additional money for Education Cost Sharing. How much money and where it will go seem to be the big questions,” Dias explained
She thanked Labor Committee co-Chair Senator Julie Kushner for taking a leadership role in getting several teacher priority bills out of that committee, Education Committee co-Chair Jennifer Leeper for being a proponent of many teacher bills in her committee, and other legislators who have been friends to teachers and public education this session.
“We’re in a decent space, but it ain’t over till it’s over,” Dias said. “That work that you do, talking to your legislators, making sure your members are engaged, is really critical.”
She encouraged members, when they receive an action alert on an issue from CEA, to put their personal narrative at the top so that legislators don’t skip over what they may think is a form letter.
“Legislators will pause when there’s a personal story, so, put the personal right up front,” she said. “Make sure legislators see your story straight off.”
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