Legislators have begun to seriously consider numerous proposals, including the governor’s, to burden local cities and towns with the state obligation to fund teacher pensions.
Municipalities only have one way to raise revenue, so this cost shift would force towns to either raise local property taxes and/or cut local public education funding—leading to larger class sizes, loss of teaching positions, and fewer vital resources for students.
New Haven County teachers had lots of questions for their legislators last night.
Last night in Hamden, hundreds of CEA members packed a New Haven County Forum to tell their legislators that this is not the right path for Connecticut. Teachers pointed out that they pay their fair share of pension costs and don’t participate in Social Security. They were adamant that they deserve to have the secure retirement they’ve been promised.
Some legislators agreed, but some wanted to leave the door open to this dangerous dodge of responsibility—which could spell disaster for public education in Connecticut for years to come.
Your legislators need to hear from you.
Contact your legislators and ask them to vote NO on any state budget that will force cities and towns to raise property taxes and destroy public education.
I would hope and I strongly suggest that CEA leadership urges local associations to begin to work closely with PTO organizations getting the word out to their memberships. I would think CEA could also move this along with state organizations of like minds. This Malloy proposal will hurt municipalities and public education far into the future and CEA needs to pull out all the stops to defeat this proposal – if they don’t – CEA’s future lies in the balance and Malloy understands this paradigm.
CEA is already ahead on that issue and will continue to build coalitions, as necessary, to defeat proposals that negatively affect children, teachers, and public education.