Volume 16, Issue 7
March, 2008
MCALLEN AFT NEWS
MAKING A DIFFERENCE
YOU PARTICIPATED IN CHANGE!
The March 4, 2008 primary election is over. What an exciting opportunity to participate in our American political process.
In the McAllen AFT office we welcomed between 30 and 40 people from all over the US to help turn out the vote. We did telephone banking, block walking, car washes, etc. We made more than 10,200 telephone calls to encourage people to vote. We did an Educator to Voter Campaign to turn out the vote for education friendly Texas legislators—both senators and representatives. It seemed like our feet were in action all the time.
The caucus process was awesome. We heard amazing stories—caucusing in a dark parking lot, standing in line with more than 100 yet to vote at 7 p.m., and only two (2) voting machines at some precincts.
Thanks to all of you who brought up the issue of Social Security Fairness at the caucus. Issues still remain after the big day—number of delegates, total votes, and more.
We will keep you posted with our weekly emails and newsletters.
We want to give special thanks to Bob Greenwood and Torchie Champion (our Member Service Specialists) for the hard work they did helping our guests from all over the US.
Bob and Torchie made phone calls, helped with snacks, provided directions, answered tons of questions and whatever else it took.
If you are not aware, Armando Gonzalez, former Member Service Specialist for McAllen AFT, has been hired at twice the salary to work for the La Joya Project—bringing the local to consultation status—able to negotiate the wages and benefits for all employees in the district.
SOCIAL SECURITY FAIRNESS AND NCLB
Every time we have a few minutes we are on line emailing Congress to open the loop hole for Social Security Fairness and lobbying for change in NCLB.
So far in the last three (3) weeks we have done 547 emails to Congress regarding Social Security Fairness, and 264 emails for positive change to NCLB.
DON’T FORGET
NCLB HAS NOT
BEEN
REAUTHORIZED!
CERTIFICATION
The State Board for Educator Certification couldn't muster a quorum for a meeting of its
Legislative Committee on March 7, but for now the meeting of the full SBEC scheduled for tomorrow is still on. (Foul weather in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is apparently the source of the attendance problem.)
On the agenda for March 8 are standards for educator-preparation programs as well as some changes in the rules for obtaining a teaching certificate.
The discussion of changes in standards for educator preparation will bear watching for any attempt to resurrect bad ideas that were rejected in the last legislative session. These include gauging the success of educator-preparation programs according to the standardized test scores of the students taught by a program's graduates. We'll also be on the lookout for proposals that might make it easier on peddlers of substandard ed-prep programs in the name of "flexibility."
SBEC staffers have rejected the recommendation of Texas AFT and others that SBEC repeal the "temporary teaching certificate" authorized a few years ago.
This locally issued credential is based on participation in a local training program that does not have to meet the same accountability standards as other alternative-certification programs.
SBEC staffers have drafted rule changes that give the appearance of tightening standards for these temporary credentials but still lack any meaningful enforcement mechanism.
There is one positive change in the proposed rules on the temporary certificate.
SBEC would no longer be required to issue a standard teaching certificate, valid statewide, to someone employed for a couple of years on temporary teaching certificate, just because the district that issued the temporary credential says the individual is qualified.
The "shall" in the relevant rule on this point would be changed to a "may." Still, the best one can say about the rule on temporary certificates is that it has been little used by school districts to date.
TITLE I
AFT Asks for Grass-Roots Messages to Congress on Federal
Education Budget Needs: The American Federation of Teachers has posted online a new e-mail message you can send your member of Congress in support of a better federal budget for education (and health care).
The message calls for a doubling of federal Title I aid for the disadvantaged over the next five years, as well as for increases in federal funding for special education.
Funding levels for both programs fall far short of amounts
originally promised under relevant federal law.
To send this message to Congress as budget drafting takes center stage, go to http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/FY09Budget022808.
PAY GAP
Compared with workers in occupations that have similar education and skill requirements, public school teachers face a large and growing pay gap, according to a new analysis from the Economic Policy Institute.
Over the last decade, the report shows, the teacher pay gap increased from 10.8 percent to 15.1 percent. That translates into weekly earnings that are about $154 lower than comparable workers'.
AFT executive vice president Antonia Cortese notes that this is just the latest study to confirm the same discouraging trend.
"Teachers continue to be vastly underpaid compared with similar workers," she says. "This makes recruitment and retention of the best and brightest increasingly difficult, even as the nation recognizes the growing need for high-quality teaching."
For female teachers, the gap is especially striking. In 1960, women teachers were better paid than other similarly educated workers--by about 14.7 percent.
By 2000, the situation had reversed to the point where female teachers faced a 13.2 percent annual wage deficit.
Read more at http://www.unionvoice.org/ct/8d18NXM1Ku95/.