This frustration and fear and anger carried into a superheated election cycle. People want answers, real solutions. And the only way we find those solutions is by working together.
With that in mind, we share the latest column from AFT President Randi Weingarten in which she writes: “Education, good jobs and the labor movement are ways people are able to empower themselves. My union works to strengthen these engines of agency and opportunity.”
There’s no point in looking for a hero to save us; we are the ones we’ve been waiting for. Let’s bring that energy into the new year and the new legislative session.
In this week’s Hotline:
🚨WEP/GPO repeal??🚨
Public school funding prospects in the Legislature
Great bills for school support staff already filed
We continue to await news of the final outcome of the bipartisan effort in Congress to pass the Social Security Fairness Act and finally repeal the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO) to ensure that public employees – including educators, firefighters, and VA nurses – receive the Social Security benefits they are due.
And at the latest TRS meeting:
Once again, Texas AFT Retiree Plus leaders Rita Runnels and Phyllis Ruffin visited Austin to represent TRS retirees. Phyllis testified before the board, sharing her positive experience with TRS’s customer service as she sought to enroll in TRS-Care Medicare Advantage to take advantage of the reduced premiums.
After Gov. Greg Abbott and his allies in the Texas Legislature hijacked $4.5 billion in additional public education funding in a failed attempt to force the passage of universal private school voucher legislation in the 88th legislative session, public schools across Texas have paid the price as communities have seen a wave of mass layoffs, school closures, and growing budget deficits.
School finance is one of the most important topics that will be taken up by the Texas Legislature in the upcoming 89th legislative session that starts on Tuesday, Jan. 14.
State legislators continue to pre-file bills for the upcoming 89th legislative session. We are closely following bills that would support Texas AFT’s Educator’s Bill of Rights, as well as those that are contrary to our members’ needs and priorities.
The Educator’s Bill of Rights is based on months of workshops held across the state and virtually in which we received vital information directly from our union’s members about the experiences and priorities of K-12 and higher education employees. As we watch the bills roll in, we wanted to take this opportunity to elevate several that specifically address the needs of our amazing support staff. Quite simply, our schools could not run efficiently or serve our students effectively without the legion of skilled folks running these systems.
Reading Opens the World: Last Saturday, AFT and Spring AFT partnered with Spring ISD to give away 45,000 free children’s books to students, families, and educators. The giveaway included a 5,000-book donation from award-winning children’s author Mary Pope Osborne, who wrote the Magic Tree House series. The event was part of AFT’s Reading Opens the World campaign, one common-sense solution in our union’s fight to strengthen public schools and address learning loss, loneliness, and literacy across the country.
Photo Credit: Marjorie Kamys Cotera for The Texas Tribune
At a special board meeting last month, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board named Wynn Rosser as the state’s next commissioner of higher education. With his background in leading rural initiatives and shaping education policy at Texas A&M University, Rosser’s appointment signals a new chapter in Texas’s higher education landscape. His appointment also brings new challenges and opportunities, particularly in our continued fight for a higher education system that equitably serves all Texans.
📖 Parents are quitting jobs, passing on raises — to qualify for child care. Each state has its own child care subsidy program for lower-income families, funded in large part by federal money. The federal government requires that subsidies go to families that make no more than 85% of their state’s median income. But states have considerable leeway in setting up rules for doling out subsidies. (Hechinger Report, Dec. 16)
📖 Texas has big goals for college completion. In places like the Coastal Bend, how to get there is still murky. Few adults have a college degree in the largely rural and mostly Hispanic counties of Texas’ Coastal Bend. That has consequences for the local economy and residents’ earning power. The demand for jobs like nursing and manufacturing has surged but few here have the credentials necessary to fill them. (The Texas Tribune, Dec. 18)
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