Dear Friend,

“When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions.” — William Shakespeare

Man the battlements! An onslaught of bad bills aimed at school employees threatens to overwhelm us in this legislative session. Your salary, benefits, contract rights and teaching conditions are all under attack as legislators seek a way to plug a $10 billion hole in the state budget without increasing taxes.

COMMUNITY COLLEGE EMPLOYEES UNDER ATTACK
Governor Perry aimed his guns at community college employees, proposing to cut state aid for health insurance for community college employees by 65 percent. If the colleges pass this reduction on to the employees (a reasonable assumption) then those employees would have to pick up an additional $199 for employee only coverage, $314 a month for employee and spouse, or $391 a month for family coverage. This saves the state some money, but it hits those educational employees hard.

If you would like to protest this assault on the pocketbook, send a message your representatives in state government. We have posted on our web page www.tft.org a letter that you can e-mail to your state representative, state senator, or Governor Perry.

ATTACK ON TEACHERS’ RIGHTS
HB 1132 by Kent Grusendorf (the Arlington Republican who chairs the Texas House Public Education Committee) would eliminate the right of teachers under term contracts to receive notice of a proposed contract nonrenewal, to receive a hearing on a proposed nonrenewal, and to appeal a nonrenewal beyond the school board. Grusendorf’s bill says, “The board of trustees [of a school district] may choose not to renew a teacher’s contract if the principal of the school to which the teacher is assigned determines that nonrenewal is in the best interest of the school’s students.”

Think Rep. Grusendorf’s bill is a bit extreme? You can e-mail him a letter from our web page www.tft.org. We have written a sample that you can use dealing with this bill.

EDUCATIONAL QUALITY MEASURES UNDER THE GUN
Any school district or campus rated “Exemplary” under the state’s accountability system would be exempted from much of the Education Code if HB 973 by Rep. Grusendorf (R-Arlington) passes into law. What kind of rules would go by the wayside for exemplary schools under HB 973?

• Teachers’ rights to due process of law.
• The minimum salary schedule for teachers.
• Limits on class sizes in early elementary grades.
• State minimum standards for school employee health insurance, personal leave, and assault leave.
• The Safe Schools Act.
• Duty-free lunch periods for teachers.
• Planning periods for teachers.
• Certification requirements.

The theory behind this bill is that freedom from state regulations will be a reward to Exemplary schools for achieving excellence. How about it? Would the prospect of losing your duty-free lunch, planning period and health insurance motivate you to knuckle down and work harder to achieve Exemplary status for your school? If the answer is “No,” maybe you should share your opinion of HB 973 with your legislators. Use the TFT web page www.tft.org if you want to save the cost of a stamp.

DOING VIOLENCE TO THE SAFE SCHOOLS ACT
The Safe Schools Act forces school districts to deal rapidly and decisively with students who commit serious offenses on campus, but Sate Representative Harold Dutton (D-Houston) has a bill (HB 1145) to change “shall” to “may” in key provisions of the Safe Schools Act (Chapter 37, Texas Education Code), leaving principals to decide how to handle student violence on campus. For instance, expulsion is now mandatory for a student who commits assault with a deadly weapon on campus, but Dutton’s bill would let the principal decide, “…using sound judgment and common sense.” Similarly, a student who beats up a school employee now must be removed from school and put in an alternative education placement, but HB 1145 could allow a principal to send a student back to the class where he just hit the teacher with a solid uppercut.

Do you think a student with a gun and a pocketful of drugs should not get off with a stern lecture and a warning to behave in the future? Check out TFT’s web page www.tft.org where you will find a letter you can e-mail to your legislator asking him/her to oppose HB 1145.

WIDOWS AND ORPHANS UNDER SIEGE IN WASHINGTON
Social Security regulations have mugged Texas school employees for years, robbing them of Social Security benefits that they or their spouses have fairly earned. Under a pernicious rule called the “windfall” provision, a school employee from a Texas district that does not participate in Social Security (most don’t) can collect only a small portion of the Social Security benefits that he/she may have earned working outside of the school system (during the summer, for example). Even more wicked is the “offset” rule, which says that a school employee in a non-Social Security district cannot collect survivors’ benefits if a spouse who worked outside of the schools passes away.

Two bills have been filed in Congress to eliminate the two despicable laws, and we are gathering support for them. While we lobbied in Washington to redress the injustice, we have been helping school employees collect their earned benefits using a loophole in the regulations. The loophole allows a school employee to go to work briefly (even one day will do) in a school district that participates in Social Security and then retire from that district.

Congressman Clay Shaw (R-Florida) blindsided us with H.R. 743, which would close the loophole by requiring employees to work the final 60 months of their career in a Social Security district to qualify for spousal benefits already earned once by their spouses’ contributions. If you think Rep. Shaw is all wet, call your Congressperson using AFT’s toll-free number (1-800-839-5276). If you don’t want to call, use TFT’s web page to send a message. Simply go to www.tft.org, then click on the icon labeled “Social Security” and follow the instructions.

On February 27 TFT Legislative Director Eric Hartman’s testimony against Rep. Shaw’s proposal was presented to the U.S. House Social Security Subcommittee. I hope Congress heeds our message.

BLASTING STUDENTS BACK TO THE PAPER AGE
Governor Perry identified a $500 million savings by cutting out the telecommunications grants for schools, libraries and hospitals during the next two years. This cut hits our school libraries hardest, but most of our schools need help to get classrooms into the technology age.

GUNNING DOWN TRS BENEFITS FOR SCHOOL EMPLOYEES
Governor Perry and legislative leaders directed all state agencies to cut their budgets by 12 percent. The Texas Teacher Retirement System (TRS) told a subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee that a 12 percent cut in TRS spending would mean the elimination of the $1,000 pass-through for school employees’ health insurance that was approved in 2001. While currently employed educators contemplate a cut in benefits, retired school employees could see a real disaster ahead. The health insurance program for retired school employees, TRS-CARE, needs about $1 BILLION in new money to keep the wolf from the door. A 12 percent cut in TRS’s budget will send TRS-CARE to Davie Jones’s locker right quickly.

ON THE BRIGHTER SIDE OF THE NEWS…
State Representative Aaron Peña (D-Edinburg) has filed a bill (HB 1228) to give every Texas teacher a $5,000 pay raise. Rep. Peña has courageously challenged the onslaught of teacher-bashing legislation, which pours out of the legislative clerk’s word processors every day, and he deserves our thanks and support. This is a gutsy move with so many folks at the Capitol shying away from any new investment in public education, but it is exactly what is needed if we are serious about delivering a quality education to every child. We require students to meet higher standards, and we would be neglecting our duty to those students if we don’t give them the qualified, experienced teachers they need to master those higher standards.

If you want to help Rep. Peña with his crusade for better teacher pay, you can use TFT’s web page www.tft.org to send an e-mail to your own legislator urging him/her to support HB 1228.

WANT A FIRST-HAND LOOK AT THE ACTION IN AUSTIN?
TFT has two Lobby Days scheduled in March: March 12 and March 17. School employees from across Texas will come to Austin to urge legislators to defeat attacks on schools, school employees and schoolchildren, and to increase the state’s investment in public education instead of reducing it. We will gather on the south steps of the Capitol for a box lunch and a rally around noon on each day. You are most cordially invited to join the action!

Sincerely,