Franklin County Democrats

Missouri NEA Legislative Update
Week 5, No. 2, January 31, 2012
By Otto Fajen     
MNEA Legislative Director

ACTION ALERT:  HOUSE COMMITTEE TO HEAR TENURE REPEAL BILL

The House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee will hear HB 1526 (Scott Dieckhaus) on February 1.  The bill eliminates the current tenure law for new hires, and places new hires into a system of contracts of up to four years.  The bill also substantially changes the existing tenure law, eliminating seniority as a factor in decisions regarding reduction in force.  The Association strongly opposes the bill.

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.

ACTION NEEDED:  Your help is needed!  Please call, write or e-mail to urge your state representative to oppose HB 1526, the Tenure Repeal Bill. The following link will connect you to the MNEA Legislative Action Center Action Alert on HB 1526.

Type in your zip code and the alert will automatically be directed to your state representative.  The Action Alert contains a brief summary and a brief, editable message box to help you send an email to your state representative on the issue.   Your message will have a greater impact if you personalize the message and add your own concerns regarding the bill.

Write Your Representative

continue reading…

Missouri NEA Legislative Update
Week 5, No. 1, January 30, 2012
By Otto Fajen     MNEA Legislative Director

ACTION ALERT: VOTE “NO” ON PAYCHECK DECEPTION ATTACK ON WORKERS

The Senate may act on one or more bills attacking labor unions when the members convene for floor debate during this week’s session.  The Senate Small Business and Industry Committee approved SCS/SBs 553 and 435 (Dan Brown) and the bill is on the Senate calendar for floor debate.    The bill eliminates authorization for public labor union payroll deductions for payment of union dues. The bill also revises authorization for public labor union payroll deductions for political action.

The Association strongly opposes the bill.  This attack is just more of the same old politics.  All employees have the constitutional right to an effective union voice in their employment and to work together to support  political campaigns without undue interference from state policies that would undermine those rights.

ACTION NEEDED:  Your help is needed!  Please call, write or e-mail to urge your state senator to oppose SCS/SBs 553 and 435, the paycheck deception attack. The following link will connect you to the MNEA Legislative Action Center Action Alert on SCS/SBs 553 and 435.

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.

Write Your Senator

continue reading…

Missouri NEA Legislative Update
Week 4, No. 2, January 24, 2012
By Otto Fajen
MNEA Legislative Director

CHARTER SCHOOLS

The House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee will meet on January 25 to hear HB 1228 (Tishaura Jones), and the Senate Education Committee will meet later that same day to hear SB 576 (Bill Stouffer). Both bills expand the authority for charter schools to cover the entire state, expand the list of entities allowed to sponsor charter schools, create a statewide chartering commission and make several changes designed to improve the accountability and transparency of charter sponsors and charter schools.

The Association believes that charter schools need to meet the same standards of accountability, transparency and respect for the rights of students, parents and staff as apply to district-operated public schools. Currently, serious remedial action is needed to improve that accountability for sponsors and charter schools, and the state should adopt and implement those reforms and verify that they are working to ensure charter schools meet those standards before considering expansion of charter school territory or sponsorship. Accordingly, the Association opposes both bills and will seek to limit charter school legislation to correcting those deficiencies without concurrent expansion of either charter school geography or sponsorship.

continue reading…

Note: Today Gov. Nixon gives State of State Address, 7 pm TONIGHT

Missouri NEA Legislative Update Week 3, No. 1, January 16, 2012
By Otto Fajen
MNEA Legislative Director

LEGISLATURE OBSERVES MLK HOLIDAY; FOLLOWS WITH HEARINGS ON ANTI-WORKER BILLS

The legislature was not in session on January 16, in observance of the federal holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  The legislature returns on January 17, and most of the legislative work of the day will be committee hearings on familiar legislative attacks on working people.  Committees will hear bills proposing “Paycheck Deception” attacks denying public employees the use of payroll deduction for union fees, rollbacks on prevailing wage policies on public construction projects, the so-called “Right-To-Work” proposal that bans compensation to unions for the costs of negotiating a contract and other services rendered on behalf of non-member employees and legislation to weaken the state’s discrimination and whistle-blower law.

STATE OF THE STATE ADDRESS

Governor Jay Nixon will deliver the State of the State Address to a joint session of the House and Senate in the House Chamber on January 17. The State of the State address gives the Governor a chance to present his vision for the state and his budget priorities.

continue reading…

A key line in SB592: “Currently, under the Missouri Human Rights Act (MHRA), a practice is unlawful when the protected trait is a contributing factor in the decision to discriminate. This act changes that standard to a motivating factor standard.”

This seems that it would require workers to prove that discrimination was a “motivating factor” in wrongful termination cases, instead of the current lesser standard of a contributing factor. The measure also would limit the court damages that could be recovered and would give courts a new framework for deciding cases without a jury trial.

Fines for Schools: Is that all the Senate can do to fund education for our children? True, a penny saved… but, really?

continue reading…

Well, our Missouri General Assembly members are back in the saddle. And Education is one of the races we will be running… hoping to beat the odds and win the prize of a solid public education for all Missouri students.

For many of us Missouri educators, Otto Fajen is our man in the Capital and he is a capital man, a man of excellent background, service and energy in pursuing all avenues to help us stay in touch with how education is faring among our legislators and consequently with us and our children.

What follows is the first of many reports I’ll post directly from our point person in the Capital. Beside the education specific news, there is some good information and links to helpful sites where you can follow the activities of our General Assembly.

I hope this help us all keep tabs on our legislators to see that they are really representing us.

continue reading…

Excerpted from Missouri NEA Daily Legislative Update — Week 9, No. 2, March 1, 2011

By Otto Fajen – MNEA Legislative Director

Today the Missouri House will meet to hear HB 628 (Scott Dieckhaus).  The Association strongly opposes the bill.  The bill would enact a massive intrusion on the operation of every school district in the state.  The bill repeals teacher tenure and minimum salary requirements for teachers with a Master’s degree.  Teacher tenure is not a guarantee of a job for life, just a process to address issues of concern and ensure teachers are not fired arbitrarily  The bill also mandates that every school district use a new, highly prescriptive, bureaucratic system of evaluation for administrators and teachers that is heavily determined by student test scores and that is used to determine both the length of a teacher’s contract and a teacher’s pay.  The bill is a massive overreach of state control that would undermine local systems already in place and stifle innovation in districts already working on new evaluation and compensation systems.   Teacher evaluation systems and teacher compensation systems should be determined locally by school districts and school employees through a collective bargaining process, not dictated by a one-size-fits-all state mandate.

You can download the full text of the bill here.

Read this recent good news from our educational leaders in Missouri.

Missouri NEA Daily Legislative Update – Week 8, No. 3, February 23, 2011
By Otto Fajen – MNEA Legislative Director

HOUSE COMMITTEE TO HEAR DEFINED CONTRIBUTION (DC) BILL FOR  NEW HIRES IN PSRS

The House Retirement Committee is scheduled to hear HB 409 (Andrew Koenig) on February 24.  The bill would automatically place new hires in PSRS/PEERS  into a defined contribution (DC) plan, unless the employee opts into the defined benefit (DB) plan within twelve months of employment.  The investment risk of a DC plan is entirely borne by the employee and there is no guarantee of an adequate pension at retirement time, nor a guarantee that an adequate pension will be available for the remainder of that retired employee’s life.

The Association strongly opposes any effort to establish a DC plan for school employees.  Actuarial analysis of the bill shows that the proposal would massively increase district cost over the next 20 years. The change from DB to DC for many or all new employees would force PSRS/PEERS to change the way that unfunded liability for DB members is handled and require much higher contributions into the system for many years in order to pay off that liability while the DB members are still in active service.

…and from our MNEA Retired President

continue reading…