ISEA HOTLINE--February 28, 2013

Attend your local legislative forums this weekend! Last week the House passed HF 215, which includes their amendments to the Governor's Education Proposal.

A summary of the bill is located in the Legislative Action Center on isea.org under the Updates tab. The House version only provides 2 percent allowable growth; lowers the minimum teacher salary to $32,000; takes peer review out of the bargaining process; requires principals to do annual summative evaluations; and allows schools to opt out of the Teacher and Career Leadership Pathway.

 Here are the questions you need to ask your legislators at the forums in your area this weekend:

Every Child Counts

The past two weeks of session were quite busy. Here is a recap of some of the most notable happenings related to kids and their families.

Last week, the HHS Budget SubCommittee heard presentations on Medicaid expansion which is a pretty hot topic at the Capitol right now. And, this week, the SubCommittee heard from 1st Five.

You can download the presentations below:

DHS - Medicaid Expansion Presentation
DHS - Iowa Care Presentation
1st Five

CLICK READ MORE below and read about specific EDUCATION and STUDENT/CHILDREN legislation.

ISEA HOTLINE--February 15, 2013

Iowa House Education Committee amends Governor's education proposal
Late Wednesday night the Iowa House Education Committee passed House File 215, a 38-page strike and replace amendment to the Governor's education proposal. Major changes include setting the minimum teacher salary at $32,000, which is $3000 lower than the Governor's originally proposed $35,000 minimum starting salary and allowing schools to opt out of the Career and Compensation Matters provisions. Those provisions pay for stipends for teachers who would become Model, Mentor, or Lead teachers. As written, HF 215 would also not provide additional resources to those districts who opt out of the Career and Compensation Matters provision in order for them to raise the minimum salary. No play, no pay.

Additionally, HF 215 replaces the peer review structure created by SF 2284, last year's education reform proposal, with an annual evaluation conducted by an administrator, thus completely eliminating the opportunity for peer feedback and reflection. Please note that this is only a proposed change presented by the House Republicans. It does not affect existing statute which calls for peer review for the upcoming school year.
It is very important to remember that this is only the first offering by the House Republicans. This bill does not reflect the goals and objectives of the entire legislature including the Senate, which is controlled by a pro-public education majority. This bill will be eligible for debate in the House as early as Tuesday of next week and we will continue to update you on its movement.

Allowable GrowthThe pro-public education majority in the Iowa Senate, voted today to set the Allowable Growth rate for the 2014/2015 school year at 4 percent, which would provide an additional $114 million to Iowa schools for FY 2015. The vote in the Senate fell along party lines with all Democrats voting yes, and all Republicans present voting no. We would like to say thank you to the Senate Democrats for following the law and setting Allowable Growth for FY 15 in a reasonable and timely fashion. The bills, along with Allowable Growth for FY 2014, have all now been sent to the House, where they await action.
Take Action Now!
There are two things you need to do right now.

Attend legislative forums in your area and write to your legislators on Allowable Growth and House File 215.

When you talk with your Legislators, explain what this means for your students and your community. If this proposed Legislation would affect the bargaining of your contracts and your school's ability to budget, tell your Legislators about those consequences. Take positive action and let your Representatives know how this affects you!  

ISEA Hotline--February 7, 2013

Find out if there is a Legislative Forum near you this weekend! Here's what to talk about:

Allowable Growth = small class sizes

Four percent Allowable Growth (which helps keep class sizes small, provides funds for Professional Development and Teacher Salary Supplement) was passed by the Senate last week and is now in the House but hasn't been assigned to a committee yet. The Governor doesn't want Allowable Growth passed until after his Education Proposal has passed. The House does not have a pro-public education majority so urge members in your district to debate and pass Allowable Growth NOW so schools in your district will have the ability to budget for 2013-2014 and 2014-15. Everyone needs to be held accountable for student success - including teachers, students, parents, AND elected officials. For a more detailed explanation of Allowable Growth, read the ISEA Talking Points on Allowable 

The Governor's Education Proposal-- Are elected officials listening to educators?

Thanks to the VIVA Report, Reimagining School Leadership for the 21st Century, Legislators have an opportunity to hear the 17 solutions proposed by hundreds of Iowa educators who are in classrooms every day. Iowa's educators have proposed practical solutions that truly do place students at the center of education reform.

Read this report written by Iowa educators to better explain the issues to your legislators.

The Governor's education proposal passed through the House Subcommittee and has been referred to the Full Committee. The House Education Committee may debate the bill as early as next week. Be prepared to contact the Chair and members of the House Education Committee and let us know how they responded by using the Contact Us form on isea.org.

February 7--KIDS NOT CUTS--NEA National Call In Day

LCEA Colleagues,

Thanks to some of your hard work, we've made progress in the fight against the "fiscal cliff" cuts to education, but we're not in the clear yet. That's why this Thursday NEA members from across the country, as well as supporters from hundreds of other organizations, will be taking part in a National Call-In Day against education funding cuts.

Call 1-866-293-7278 on Thursday, February 7 to be connected to your members of congress and urge them to support Kids Not Cuts!

At a minimum, education could still be hit with a cut of more than $3 billion this year. That's a scary prospect for educators like Marian from California, who shared her Kids Not Cuts story with us through our Education Votes website:

"We have class sizes over 40, no libraries, no computer labs, one nurse for 5,000 students and no music or art in our district. That is not what is needed to educate our students. Restoring funding is crucial and must happen, now!"

ISEA Talking Points--Governor's Education Reform Plan

The ISEA continues to support education reforms that are designed to improve student learning, expand educational opportunities, and enhance the educational environment in our state. Because we are deeply committed to the success of every Iowa child, we will only support reform efforts that put students at the center.

In order for any new education initiative to be successful it must be fully funded and must only be implemented once the regular program funding needs of local school districts are met. As such, ISEA will advocate for setting the Allowable Growth rate before the funding of any new initiative is discussed.

The ISEA will continue to review the Governor’s proposal, ask clarifying questions, and represent the concerns of our members in this critical debate. After a first look at the Governor’s legislative proposal, these are the basic concepts and ideas that are important to consider:

Sequestration and its Impact on Education

The White House has released its plan explaining how the sequester’s mandatory spending cuts to defense and domestic spending will be implemented in 2013. Here’s the background on what the sequester is, how it happened and what happens from here:
What is the sequester?

It’s a package of automatic spending cuts that’s part of the Budget Control Act (BCA), which was passed in August 2011. The cuts, which are projected to total $1.2 trillion, are scheduled to begin in 2013 and end in 2021, evenly divided over the nine-year period. The cuts are also evenly split between defense spending — with spending on wars exempt — and discretionary domestic spending, which exempts most spending on entitlements like Social Security and Medicaid, as the Bipartisan Policy Center explains. The total cuts for 2013 will be $109 billion, according to the new White House report.

Under the BCA, the cuts were triggered to take effect beginning Jan. 1 if the supercommittee didn’t to agree to a $1.2 trillion deficit-reduction package by Nov. 23, 2011. The group failed to reach a deal, so the sequester was triggered.

TO READ MORE ON SEQUESTRATION'S EFFECTS ON EDUCATION CLICK HERE or enter this into your browser http://www.nea.org/home/52610.htm

FOR MORE ON SEQUESTRATION, CLICK READ MORE BELOW

What Losing the Legislature Means to More of Our Friends--Kansas Educators Likely to Pay a Heavy Price

Kansas Legislature Mulls Bill To Limit Teacher Union Rights.

LCEA NOTE: We frequently ask our members to commit to involving themselves in coffees, writing legislators and more. Kansas teachers--who came to Pottawattamie County several times to help with Election 2012--are likely to lose many hard-fought gains because both chambers and the Governor's office are now filled with anti-public-education policy makers. Please answer the call to help us in this session. We are truly "one Gronstal" away from Wisconsin.

The Topeka Capital-Journal (1/29, Llopis-Jepsen) reports that a committee of the Kansas state House is considering legislation to "limit the negotiating rights of teachers unions and strip them of their status as exclusive bargaining units. The amendments to the Professional Negotiations Act would allow teachers who aren't part of their local unions to negotiate contracts individually or in other groups." The measure would remove teacher assessments from the "list of negotiable items," along with "the length of classes and number of periods per day."

KCTV-TV Kansas City, MO (1/30, McCallister, Lee) reports online that the bill "would change the way schools could negotiate contracts with teachers," adding that legislators "have proposed bills targeting public sector unions and Tuesday focused on teachers." Noting that teachers and other education stakeholders are protesting the bill, the article quotes a local teachers union leader saying, "They're going to try and silence our political voice."

Urgent Action Needed for Allowable Growth

Urgent action needed for Allowable Growth!

Please contact your state legislators now. Let them know they need to set the 2013-2014 Allowable Growth Rate.

As educators, we are deeply committed to the success of every child. We know that failing to set an Allowable Growth Rate hurts Iowa students and our schools.

• Adequate, predictable, and sustainable funding is critical for planning purposes and for making important financial decisions in our school districts.

• A statewide education coalition— the Iowa State Education Association (ISEA), the School Administrators of Iowa (SAI), the Iowa Association of School Boards (IASB), the Urban Education Network (UEN), and Area Education Agencies (AEAs)—agrees that setting Allowable Growth at 4 percent for the 2013-2014 school year is critical to the success of Iowa’s students and schools.

• It’s the law! Iowa statute calls for the establishment of a statewide Allowable Growth Rate for schools within the first 30 days of the legislative session.

• By failing to establish an Allowable Growth Rate, legislators will force school administrators to issue staff reduction notices, thereby potentially increasing class sizes, reducing course offerings, and decreasing other important school resources.

Go to isea.org and click on the “Take Action Now” button on the right-hand side of the page to email your legislators or to find a Legislative Forum in your area.

HOTLINE: Governor's Education Reform Plan Released

Today the Governor released his final recommendations for his education plan. We think it is very important for all of our members to have the most up-to-date information about this issue which will soon be introduced into legislation.


Below is the text of the ISEA's response and also included in this message is the link to the Governor's plan. Stay tuned for more information about this and other important issues in the coming weeks.

Wisconsin Assembly Passes Controversial Public Union Bargaining Bill.

A day after Republicans in the Wisconsin state Senate used procedural maneuvers to pass a bill stripping public unions of most collective bargaining rights, the state Assembly passed the bill, sending it to Gov. Scott Walker. While media reports, including the lead story on NBC, portray the vote as a win for Walker, many outlets note the controversy has energized unions and the Democratic allies.

The AP (3/10) reports the White House "is denouncing a vote by the Wisconsin Senate to strip nearly all collective bargaining rights from government workers, calling it an assault on public employees." White House spokesman Jay Carney said President Obama "believes it is wrong for Wisconsin to use its budget troubles 'to denigrate or vilify public sector employees.'" In a second story, the AP (3/11, Bauer) reports union leaders "plan to use the setback to fire up their members nationwide and mount a major counterattack against Republicans at the ballot box in 2012."

CAN YOU HEAR THE PEOPLE SING?

All around our country, our profession is under attack.  The happy surprise is that we are not silent.  Now is the time for us to start the fight in our state that our brave colleagues in Ohio, Wisconsin, Tennesse, Indiana and so many more have started.

Many of the members of SWUU and LC will join in the protest on the attack on our rights, I have found myself singing lyrics from this song.  Those who forget history are damned to relive it. Let's hope that as educated folks, we learned our history well.

We are hopeful that you will join us Monday night--a school night--in making sure that history doesn't repeat itself.  CAN YOU HEAR THE PEOPLE SING?  Join us in doing "the other part of our job" and help us protect our hard-fought rights?  Want one of the empty seats in our car?  Contact us at lceainsider@cox.net

CLICK BELOW FOR MORE INFORMATION ON MONDAY'S RALLY

How Can You Help our Wisconsin Colleagues and Prepare for Attacks in Iowa? The 51 Fund--50 States, ONE VOICE

Many of you have been wondering what else you can do to support our members and our friends and allies working so hard for collective bargaining and for keeping our voice heard. Today, the NEA is announcing The 51 Fund to help in those efforts.

What’s happening now in Wisconsin is historic. As you have probably seen on the nightly news or on the front pages of your local newspaper, tens of thousands of citizens are gathering in Wisconsin and across the country to protest proposed legislation that would strip public sector employees—which includes public school educators—of their collective bargaining rights.

Legislators: Hanusa, Gronstal, Forristall and Brandenberg on Public Unions and House Bill 117

Footage is from the February 26, 2011 Legislative Forum at the Council Bluffs Public Library.

Senate Majority Leader Gronstal and House Education Committee Chair on House Bill 117, Public Unions part II

Footage is from the February 26, 2011 Legislative Forum at the Council Bluffs Public Library.

Senator Mike Gronstal on Allowable Growth

Footage is from the February 26, 2011 Legislative Forum at the Council Bluffs Public Library.

Senator Gronstal & Representative Forristall on Pre-School, Part II

Footage is from the February 26, 2011 Legislative Forum at the Council Bluffs Public Library.

House Education Committee Chair Greg Forristall on Cuts to Iowa's AEAs

Footage is from the February 26, 2011 Legislative Forum at the Council Bluffs Public Library.

Senator Gronstal and Representative Forristall on Earned Income Tax Credit and Living Wages for our ESP Members

Footage is from the February 26, 2011 Legislative Forum at the Council Bluffs Public Library.

Thousands converge on Wisconsin for more protests

by James Kelleher and David Bailey Reuters

MADISON, Wisconsin — Tens of thousands of demonstrators converged on Wisconsin's state Capitol on Saturday in frigid weather to protest a Republican plan to curb the power of public sector unions.

The rotunda of the Capitol was choked with protesters hours before a planned union-backed rally scheduled to start at 3 p.m. local time, and a lengthy line snaked around outside a single open building entrance.

Saturday's rally had a festival or concert feel with a stage set up and some popular musicians expected to perform later in the day. Madison police said they expected a "sizable crowd" but did not give an estimate.