“We cannot do what we do without the work of our retired educators,” CEA President Kate Dias told CEA-Retired members at their annual fall meeting yesterday. “That has never been more clear to me than with the recent situation in Bridgeport. Teachers are nervous about speaking up and they feel really vulnerable, but I’ve seen our retired teachers come out and offer support and say, ‘Stand behind me. I got you. I’ll be your voice.'”
Dias said that one retired educator who showed up to the Bridgeport rally had been involved in the Bridgeport strike in the 1970s. “That retired member came to the rally and said, ‘We never forget how important it is to stand together, to be unified, and to always have each other’s backs.'”
CEA-Retired members work together for change on many different issues, and CEA-Retired President Bill Murray said that the combined decades’ long efforts of CEA and CEA-Retired are finally bearing fruit when it comes to teachers’ pensions.
“Last week the governor held a press conference with State Treasurer Eric Russell and they announced that the pension funds have increased 11.5% this past fiscal year. That’s almost 7 billion dollars added to the funds,” Murray said.
“Eric Russell has made a commitment to meet with us every six months to update us on the status of teachers’ pensions, and we’re heading to a place where we can actually foresee having a pension fund that is properly funded,” Dias said. “That’s a tremendous achievement, and that is really because of all of you who have never forgotten the importance of keeping our pension security front and center at all times. Your work is paying off. I remember being on the Capitol steps as an early-career educator urging that our pensions were properly funded, so to be able to sit here, some 20-odd years later and know that we’re in a more positive, healthy relationship with our treasurer’s office and with our pension is a real feather in all of your caps.”
Attorney General sends greetings
Attorney General William Tong had to cancel his planned appearance at the CEA-Retired meeting at the last minute due to an unexpected event but instead sent a personalized video message that resonated with retirees.
“It is my honor to work for all of you, your families, and teachers across Connecticut,” he said. “Some of you may know, my parents are immigrants and I grew up working with my parents in our family’s Chinese restaurant in Wethersfield, Connecticut, and in one generation I’ve been so fortunate to be able to go from that hot Chinese restaurant kitchen to being the attorney general of this state.”
He continued, “The one thing that I can point to that made that possible, apart from my parents’ extraordinary sacrifice and our work seven days a week, 15 hours a day, the one thing that made a huge difference was my teachers and the extraordinary impact they had on me and giving me so many opportunities—and that included their guidance, not just their teaching on subject matter. The guidance and the things I learned and the mentorship from teachers have made all the difference, and that’s why I have the honor to be your attorney general.”
Tong spoke about scams retired teachers need to be aware of as well as his efforts to make social media safer for students. Listen to his complete remarks below.
WEP/GPO update
“We’ve been working toward repeal of WEP/GPO for over 20 years but we now have the most active response I’ve ever seen,” Murray said. “We’re getting close.”
“When I went on my first sojourn to the other presidents of NEA state affiliates and brought up WEP/GPO nobody had any idea what I was talking about unless they were impacted directly,” Dias said. “I started with 13 people who felt deeply like, we’re getting screwed and we need help, and we now have 50 presidents across the U.S. who are very well versed on the issue and fighting for repeal.”
CEA Vice President Joslyn DeLancey is a member of the Repeal WEP/GPO Task Force, which includes not just educators but representatives from all employee groups impacted by WEP/GPO from across the country.
“Given the number of voices screaming and shouting that this needs to be repealed, it’s disgraceful that our our federal elected officials have not repealed this at this point,” DeLancey said.
CEA Vice President Joslyn DeLancey updated retirees on the latest efforts to repeal WEP/GPO.
The latest development toward WEP/GPO repeal has come from Congressman Garrett Graves and Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger who filed a bipartisan discharge petition on September 10 to ensure that House Resolution 82 is moved out of Committee and heads to the full House of Representatives. HR 82 would amend the Social Security Act to repeal WEP/GPO. At least 218 members of Congress must sign the petition to move the legislation forward for a vote.
“Before the discharge petition was filed last week Kate and I reached out to other state affiliate presidents and informed everybody about the discharge petition. We had people from 45 states who participated in our action alert and sent emails to Congress, so that is critical,” DeLancey said.
She added, “I don’t understand why this isn’t coming forward for a vote yet, but we’re going to need your help over the next couple of weeks. We will be putting out additional action alerts. We need to keep putting pressure on members of Congress who haven’t signed the discharge petition yet and thank those who have while reminding them we’re not done yet—they still have to vote for this bill.”
Contact your member of Congress to urge them to bring legislation up for a vote.
Retired teachers are Education Champions
CEA Executive Director Todd Jaeck spoke to retirees about CEA’s new Champions for Public Education program that brings together parents, community leaders, policymakers, and other stakeholders to support students and strengthen public schools.
“As retired educators, you have already established yourselves as champions for public education,” Jaeck said. “What if Joslyn had a group of retirees that are champions for public education who can respond and help her push WEP/GPO repeal over the finish line? What if during these elections that are critical to our state and to our country CEA’s Government Relations Department had a group of retirees they could lean on to help support candidates that are pro-public education. What motivates you? What do you care about and what do you value? Through our Champions for Public Education Campaign we have a place for you to participate in the work of CEA.”
He continued, “Maybe there’s an opportunity that you are deeply passionate about that you could get involved with to make a difference in the lives of the students in Connecticut, and we want to provide that opportunity for retirees. Our invite to you today is to be a part of that campaign to be a Champion for Public Education, but when you sign up to be a champion for public education, we’re collecting the information you share so we know what your interests are and we can find a way involve you as part of this community of people that care deeply about public education in Connecticut.”
