Franklin County Democrats

ACTION ALERT

The Senate is set to vote on a new Senate Substitute version of SB 806 (Jane Cunningham) that removes seniority as a factor in RIFing and increases the probationary period from five years to ten years.

The bill will probably be brought up for final passage (Third Reading Vote) by roll call when the Senate returns from Easter Break on Tuesday, April 10, 2012

SB 806 does nothing to help students or teachers. The bill just undermines a fair dismissal procedure that is working and leaves more teachers subject to arbitrary termination.

ACTION NEEDED

Please call, write or email your Senator immediately. Urge you Senator to oppose SS/SCS/SB 806. This link will connect you to the MNEA Legislative Action Center. Type in your zip code and the alert will automatically be directed to your State Senator. The Action Alert contains a sample message. It will have a greater impact if you personalize the message and add your own concerns regarding the bill.

Information provided by Otto Fajen – MNEA Legislative Director

The Senate defers the anti-tenure bill to study it further but the House approves its version. Dieckhaus and Jones join the pack against tenure!

Missouri NEA Legislative Update
Week 13, No. 3, April 4, 2012
By Otto Fajen, MNEA Legislative Director

NO FURTHER SENATE ACTION ON TENURE REPEAL ON APRIL 4

The Senate did not take up SB 806 (Jane Cunningham) on April 4. Sen. Cunningham offered a SS version on April 3 that repeals teacher tenure and removes seniority or years of service as a factor in reduction in force.

Sen. David Pearce offered an amendment to the bill on April 3.  Pearce’s amendment removed all language related to tenure repeal and replaced it with language similar to his SB 13 from 2011 to create an interim study committee on the issue.  The amendment was adopted by a roll-call vote of 17-15.

After adoption of Pearce’s amendment, Sen. Cunningham laid the bill over on the Informal Calendar on April 3 with the amended SS version pending.

The Association opposes the bill.  Teacher tenure is just a process to address issues of concern and ensure teachers are not fired arbitrarily.  Where districts face challenges with under-performing teachers, the real issue to address is establishing a quality evaluation system that provides teachers with feedback and support in improving performance and addressing concerns. Missouri NEA also opposes removing RIF provisions calling for retaining teachers qualified in the area of instruction for the position being retained and opposes outlawing consideration of tenure status as a factor of experience in retaining staff.  Current law already provides that teachers shall be retained based upon performance-based evaluations and that seniority shall not be the controlling factor.

Missouri NEA supports a general policy requirement that districts establish a strong and effective evaluation system, as contained in SB 654, filed by Sen. Brad Lager, rather than the unworkable, unproven mandates in HCS/HB 1526, such as tying at least 50% of every teacher’s evaluation to student test scores.

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Missouri NEA Legislative Update – Week 13, No. 2, April 3, 2012
By Otto Fajen,
MNEA Legislative Director

ACTION ALERT: DIVIDED SENATE REJECTS TENURE REPEAL, MAY DEBATE ISSUE ON APRIL 4

The Senate debated SB 806 (Jane Cunningham) at length on April 3. The original bill eliminates the current tenure law for all teachers, and places all teachers on an initial one-year contract.  Districts could choose to allow one or more teachers to have contracts of up to four years.  The bill also eliminates seniority as a factor in decisions regarding reduction in force.

The original bill also includes numerous mandates regarding teacher evaluation systems, such as requiring at least fifty percent of evaluations to be based on student test scores and prohibiting districts and employees from designing evaluation systems within collective bargaining negotiations.  The also repeals the minimum salary law for all teachers.

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You have to say one thing for Republicans, they are nothing if not relentless. Not a week after Cole County Circuit Court Judge Patricia Joyce ruled unconstitutional a joint resolution passed by the Missouri Legislature that would require voters to present a photo ID card at polling places, Majority Floor Leader Tim Jones and Rep. Jason Smith, co-chairs of the corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in Missouri, are cosponsoring a new ballot measure in response to Judge Joyce’s ruling. They are that concerned about vote fraud in Missouri.

So how bad is the problem of voter fraud in our state? It’s almost nonexistent. The Brennan Center for Justice conducted case studies by state and could only confirm eight cases of ineligible votes cast in Missouri between 2000 and 2006 in municipal and statewide elections. To put that into perspective eight cases represent less than 0.0003% of all votes cast. And none of these cases would have been prevented by these voter ID laws, according to the study.

“This is just the latest in a national effort by regressive politicians to help their candidates in close elections,” said Sean Soendker Nicholson, Director of Progress Missouri. “Politicians like Shane Schoeller and Bill Stouffer who push these laws never acknowledge their real purpose, which is to turn away from the polls people who are more likely to support progressive candidates — particularly the young, the poor, the elderly and minorities.”

Missouri NEA Legislative Update, 
Week 13, No. 1, April 2, 2012
By Otto Fajen, MNEA Legislative Director

ACTION ALERT – SENATE TO DEBATE TENURE REPEAL BILL ON APRIL 3

The Senate will debate SCS/SB 806 (Jane Cunningham) on April 3. The bill eliminates the current tenure law for all teachers, and places all teachers on an initial one-year contract.  Districts could choose to allow one or more  teachers to have contracts of up to four years.  The bill also eliminates seniority as a factor in decisions regarding reduction in force.

The bill also includes numerous mandates regarding teacher evaluation systems, such as requiring at least fifty percent of evaluations to be based on student test scores and prohibiting districts and employees from designing evaluation systems within collective bargaining negotiations.  The also repeals the minimum salary law for all teachers.

The Association strongly opposes the bill. Teachers need an effective voice in their schools.  Teacher tenure is just a process to address issues of concern and ensure teachers are not fired arbitrarily.  Where districts face challenges with under-performing teachers, the real issue to address is establishing a quality evaluation system that provides teachers with feedback and support in improving performance and addressing concerns.

Instead of repealing tenure, Missouri NEA supports a requirement that districts establish a strong and effective evaluation system, as contained in SB 654, filed by Sen. Brad Lager.

ACTION NEEDED:  Your help is needed! Please call, write or e-mail to urge your state senator to oppose SCS/SB 806. The following link will connect you to the MNEA Legislative Action Center Action Alert on SCS/SB 806.

Type in your zip code and the alert will automatically be directed to your state senator.  The Action Alert contains a brief summary and a brief, editable message box to help you send an email to your state senator on the issue.

YOUR MESSAGE WILL HAVE A GREATER IMPACT IF YOU PERSONALIZE THE MESSAGE AND ADD YOUR OWN CONCERNS REGARDING THE BILL.

http://www.capwiz.com/nea/mo/issues/alert/?alertid=61150361&type=ST

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Last week Cole County Circuit Court Judge Patricia Joyce ruled unconstitutional a joint resolution passed by the Missouri Legislature in 2011 that would have placed Voter ID legislation on the November ballot. It’s more than a little ironic that an amendment that purports to prevent voter fraud is itself ruled a fraud. As this STLToday editorial rightly points out:

Republican primary voters know what you’re trying to accomplish, and they’re on board. You want to limit the number of African-Americans in St. Louis and Kansas City and college students in Columbia and elsewhere who might vote for President Barack Obama and other Democrats. And if in the process a few folks in wheelchairs, elderly nuns and legal immigrants who are naturalized U.S. citizens are denied the right to vote, even better.

Republicans aren’t fooling anyone. Their stated goal to suppress the vote has been well understood for decades. In 1980, in a rare moment of candor, conservative activist and co-founder of the Heritage Foundation, Paul Weyrich, spilled the beans …

Now many of our Christians have what I call the goo-goo syndrome — good government. They want everybody to vote. I don’t want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of people, they never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.

Here is a recap of the deadly Twitter spree Rep. Tim Jones from Eureka went on last week. As you read these keep in mind that A). Jones aspires to become the next Speaker of the Missouri State House, and B). He’s a grown man:

• Revenge best served cold. As it will be to left wing trolls who have so gleefully & fraudulently attacked me #bliss [tweet now deleted -- screencap here]
• Gleeful, fraudulent, Cheetos stained, basement dwelling, hateful, lonely left wing trolls: revenge is best served cold. #cheers [tweet now deleted -- screencap here]
• Nasty, lying, Cheetos stained, basement dwelling, lonely, spiteful, hateful, deceptive left wing trolls: It shall be served cold. #cheers! [tweet now deleted -- screencap here]
• It’s simply too easy to flush out the hysterical Left. Way too easy.
• Well, that was WAY too easy. It’s good to purge the ‘ol twitter account every once in awhile of the stalkers & harassers.
• So easy to flush them out. Just say something silly that offends THEIR thin skinned sensitivities & it’s like vultures on a bone.
• And that should bring a few more out. Then back to business.

You see what he did there? After realizing he’d made a complete fool of himself he deletes the evidence then claims he was just trying to get a reaction from the “hysterical left” who he ironically accuses of “lying.” You see, he outsmarted everyone. He really got us. Uh, huh. But even if that’s the case how is it any better? It still exhibits the emotional maturity level of a petulant 5th grader. What kind of an adult behaves this way?

Let the cries of the persecuted Christians begin …

Franklin County Presiding Commissioner John Griesheimer said he is putting a temporary pause on beginning the commission’s weekly meetings with a prayer after receiving a letter dated March 21 from the American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri.

In the letter, the organization’s legal director, Anthony Rothert, said the ACLU received a complaint “about repeated instances of sectarian prayer offered at meetings.”

Each Tuesday for more than a year, Griesheimer has begun the meetings with a reciting of the pledge of allegiance and a prayer to God and Jesus Christ.

The prayers have varied from thanking God for the weather and the World Series Championship of the St. Louis Cardinals to asking for protection for servicemen and – women.

Rothert said sectarian prayers — in this instance, Christian — at county commission meetings are unconstitutional.

Griesheimer said addressing the situation isn’t easy.

“I don’t back down from a fight, but what we’re dealing with is (potentially) taxpayer money,” he said, noting that the county could incur costs if faced with a legal challenge.

“I think temporarily we’ll go to a moment of silence,” Griesheimer said.

Greisheimer makes it sound like this is a minor legal snafu and once County Council Mark Vincent works his magic Sleepy John can go back to singing the praises of Jesus before each official government meeting. But it will be no more Constitutional in six months than it as been all along.

He’s right about one thing, county taxpayers will be the ones to incur the legal costs of fighting this if Greisheimer persists, and it will all be for naught because the county does not have a legal leg to stand on.

Legislative Update – The Week in Review
By Otto Fajen, MNEA Legislative Director
Number 12 – March 29, 2012

ANTI-WORKER AMENDMENTS ADDED TO STATE BOARD INTERVENTION BILL
The Senate Education Committee approved an SCS version of HCS/HB 1174 (Mike Lair) on March 28. Sen. Jane Cunningham offered four amendments to the bill. An amendment responding to prior actions by DESE regarding school accreditation and pupil transfer was defeated by a 4-4 tie on a roll call vote. An amendment to maintain existing language, deleted by HB 1174, calling for an unaccredited district to create a plan to submit to the voters for dividing the district territory if the district can not regain accreditation within three years was also defeated by a 4-4 tie.

However, the committee adopted two anti-worker amendments offered by Sen. Cunningham by voice vote. The first would prevent a district from compensating a school employee on release as an employee union officer unless the employee works full-time for the district. The second amendment apparently purports to prohibit a Special Administrative Board from bargaining a contract with an employee union. Both amendments are unneeded attacks on public employee unions and potentially in conflict with the constitutional right of all Missouri employees to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing. Missouri NEA strongly opposes both amendments and will seek to have them removed from the bill as it continues through the process.

While the Association strongly opposes the amendments added in committee, MNEA supports the original bill. The House version of HB 1174 revises the timelines and options for State Board intervention when it classifies a district as unaccredited. The bill allows the State Board to consider possible changes in governance when classifying a district as unaccredited, rather than waiting two years and automatically lapsing the district. The bill also incorporates language to require that the State Board hold a hearing in the unaccredited district to help bring community resources and stakeholders together in support of a district improvement plan.

TENURE REPEAL BILL
The Senate did not debate SB 806 (Jane Cunningham) on March 27 when the bill was brought up in order on the calendar. The bill was placed on the Informal Calendar, but could be taken up for debate later this session. Stay tuned for a possible action alert concerning the bill later this session.

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Talking Points Memo has audio of Mitt Romneyyukking it up while telling a story of how his dear old auto executive dad didn’t want to hear the music after closing a plant and laying off Michigan autoworkers.  I am sure all the former Chrysler, Integram, Ventra, small business owners, large business owners, realtors, teachers, public employees, and almost everyone else in Franklin County affected by the closing of the Fenton Assembly Complex will enjoy this “humorous” tale as well.  At the least they can hear by his laughter how much Mitt Romney enjoyed telling it.  He might even enjoy it more than the car elevator he’s having built in his new mansion.