Dear Friend,

"I wish people who have trouble communicating would just shut up." — Tom Lehrer

State Representative Mary Denny (R-Aubrey) wants TFT to shut up, but not because we have trouble communicating; she apparently thinks TFT communicates too well. If Rep. Denny succeeds in passing her HB 1513 then I could be jailed for up to two years and fined up to $10,000 for sending this letter to you.

HB 1513 would outlaw the use of dues money collected through payroll deduction for a "political expenditure." Since state law already prohibits the use of members' dues for political contributions, one has difficulty seeing the purpose of Rep. Denny's bill. The key lies in the definition of "political expenditure." Rep. Denny's bill defines "political expenditure" so broadly that it includes this newsletter, an email message or any other form of communication in which we tell you, before you to go vote, how your elected leaders voted on measures that affect your professional life.

Rep. Denny's bill only applies to TFT and other groups representing school employees. Other lobbying groups are free to publish as much as they like. Even the school-board members' union (Texas Association of School Boards) would be allowed to report from its point of view. Clearly, Rep. Denny does not want us to tell you what she is up to in Austin.

We suffered a setback in our fight for Social Security fairness for Texas school employees. The U.S. House of Representatives approved HR 743, by Congressman Clay Shaw (R-Florida), which aims to kill the little exemption in the law that allows Texas school employees to collect the Social Security widows' benefits that their husbands had earned for them.

The key vote came on an amendment to HR 743 by Congressman Gene Green (D-Houston) that would have preserved the ability of Texas school employees to collect survivor's benefits. Green and Congressman Lloyd Doggett (D-Austin) led the fight on your behalf, but lost by a vote of 228-196.

We are disappointed by this setback but not discouraged and not deterred in our fight for Social Security fairness. Only a couple of months ago the conventional wisdom in Washington was that we would get clobbered if something like Congressman Green's amendment went to a vote. Since that time members of the U.S. House have received an education on this issue from Texas school employees in wave after wave of grass-roots communications.

We lost a battle, but the war is not over. The next phase of this campaign will occur in the U.S. Senate and in the Ways and Means Committee of the U.S. House. The exemption is still there for now, and the bigger campaign lies ahead. The Congress should end the injustice of these regulations that deny school employees the Social Security they and their spouses have earned by passing the Social Security Fairness Act. In the U.S. House, 22 Texas Congressmen have signed on as co-sponsors of the House version of that bill (HR 594). The honor roll of those co-sponsors is as follows:

If your member of Congress is not on the list, log onto the TFT web page www.tft.org and send him an e-mail exhorting him to mend his ways.

Thanks to all of you who helped us send a message to the Texas Legislature on our Virtual Lobby Day. We logged over 14,000 e-mail messages through our Web page that day! In the last 90 days over 50,000 e-mail and fax messages have been sent to Texas legislators through our interactive Web page. If you have not sent your representative a message, give it a try! It's easy: Log onto www.tft.org. On the Web page is an icon with the message, "Make Your Voice Heard." Click onto that icon and then follow the directions as it leads you through the process. You will find pre-written letters on various issues that you can send to your representative or state senator with the click of a mouse.

On April 15 and 16 TFT and your allies in the Texas House fought to hang onto funding for your $1,000 state-paid supplement for health care. The state budget recommended by the House Committee on Appropriations would cut $450 out of every teacher's health care stipend. That's bad enough, but the proposal takes $700 from a full-time support staff person's pocket, and $800 from the part-time support staff! Administrators get hit hardest; they lose all of the $1,000.

Our steadfast champions in the fight to protect you from these cuts were Representative Scott Hochberg (D-Houston) and Representative José Menendez (D-San Antonio). On April 15 Rep. Hochberg offered two amendments in a row that would have put at least some of the money back in every school employee's pocket. The legislature is trying to impose in effect a special tax on school employees, Hochberg said, and he asked the House to steer some newly "discovered" money back into your wallets. Hochberg got 64 votes on his first try and 69 on the second round. Close, but no cigar.

On April 16 Rep. Menendez offered a plan to earmark for your $1,000 health-insurance stipend up to 80 percent of new funding already proposed for school districts. Menendez said the legislature needed to honor its commitment, made by a unanimous vote just last session, to provide this benefit to school employees. Menendez' amendment was shot down by a vote of 77-68.

Want to know how your representative voted on the Menendez amendment? The votes are listed by representative on a page enclosed with this letter. The key vote came on a motion to table (and thereby kill) Rep. Menendez' amendment, so a "right" vote was a vote against the motion to table. To simplify the reading of the report, we report the vote as a "right" vote or a "wrong" vote on the issue.

We took our lumps in the House, but we are not done fighting. This budget battle now resumes in the Texas Senate. Keep those e-mails, faxes, phone calls, cards and letters coming!

On April 16 the El Paso Independent School District held two elections (one for teachers and another for support staff) to allow EPISD employees to elect an organization to represent them in negotiations with the district over wages, hours, and conditions of employment. The El Paso Federation of Teachers and Support Personnel formed an alliance with the El Paso Teachers Association (the TSTA affiliate for El Paso teachers) and blew away the opposition in the teachers' election, while the El Paso FTSP campaigning solo in the support staff election won an impressive victory. Here are the vote totals.

Congratulations to El Paso FTSP President Frances Wever and to the members of the EPFTSP for this great victory!

Sincerely,

John Cole, President
Texas Federation of Teachers

P.S. On Thursday, May 1, the Social Security Subcommittee of the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee will finally hold a promised hearing on Social Security fairness. Log on to the TFT Web site at www.tft.org and send a letter to Congress calling for the prompt enactment of the Social Security Fairness Act!

Votes on a motion to table Representative Jose Menendez' amendment to restore funding for the $1,000 health insurance supplement for school employees (a "right" vote was a vote against the motion to table the amendment)