Franklin County Democrats

Missouri NEA Legislative Update
Week 6, No. 2, February 7, 2012
By Otto Fajen MNEA Legislative Director

CHARTER SCHOOLS

The House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee will meet in executive session on February 8 to consider HB 1228 (Tishaura Jones).  The bill expands the authority for charter schools to cover the entire state, expands the list of entities allowed to sponsor charter schools, creates a statewide chartering commission and makes 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 the bill and will seek to limit charter school legislation to correcting those deficiencies without concurrent expansion of either charter school geography or sponsorship.

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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.

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Please lend your voice to oppose the legislators’ ongoing efforts with regard to workplace discrimination and whistle-blower law, and Voter ID legislation.

Missouri NEA Legislative Update     Week 4, No. 1, January 23, 2012

By Otto Fajen
MNEA Legislative Director

WORKPLACE DISCRIMINATION AND WHISTLE-BLOWER LAW

The Senate took up SCS/SB 592 (Brad Lager) for floor debate on January 23, but did not bring the bill to a first round or Perfection vote. After discussing the measure for more than an hour, the Senate placed the bill on the Informal Calendar, a sort of parking lot for legislation that may be brought up again later this year whenever the Senate is in session. Further debate is expected on this bill, perhaps later this week.

The Association opposes SB 592. The bill makes several harmful changes to the state’s anti-discrimination law in employment, disability and housing and significantly limits and weakens “whistle-blower” protections.

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Otto Fajen’s update for today calls our attention to general workplace discrimination and whistleblower issues – of interest to all 99% of us. Be sure to let your representatives in the Capitol hear your voice on this issue.

Missouri NEA Weekly Legislative Update
Week 2, No. 1, January 9, 2012
By Otto Fajen
MNEA Legislative Director

WORKPLACE DISCRIMINATION AND WHISTLE-BLOWER LAW

The Senate Commerce, Consumer Protection, Energy and the Environment Committee will meet on January 10 to hear SB 592 (Brad Lager). The Association opposes SB 592. The bill makes several harmful changes to the state’s anti-discrimination law in employment, disability and housing and significantly limits and weakens the “whistle-blower” protections that ensure front line employees with the best information and knowledge are able to hold public institutions and public officials accountable for faithfully fulfilling their public duties.  The bill contains some provisions from last year’s SB 188 (Brad Lager) which was passed by the legislature and vetoed by Governor Jay Nixon.  SB 188 did not become law.

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Many of the issues come to my attention via our Legislative Updates from Missouri NEA. This one applies to all workers.

Missouri NEA Daily Legislative Update Week 5, No. 1, January 31, 2011
By Otto Fajen MNEA Legislative Director
WORKPLACE DISCRIMINATION AND WHISTLE-BLOWER LAW

The House Workforce Development and Workplace Safety Committee met on January 31 and heard HB 205 (Kevin Elmer).  The Association opposes HB 205. The bill makes several harmful changes to the state’s anti-discrimination law in employment, disability and housing and significantly limits and weakens the “whistle-blower” protections that ensure front line employees with the best information and knowledge are able to hold public institutions and public officials accountable for faithfully fulfilling their public duties.

The bill contains many harmful changes to the state’s discrimination law.  Missouri NEA believes that unfair, discriminatory treatment in the workplace should remain unlawful.  Perhaps the most problematic discrimination law change in the bill is the indirect change of the definition of “discrimination”.  The bill would limit workplace discrimination, for example,  to only those cases where discrimination can be shown to be “the motivating factor” of the unfair treatment.   This change will drastically limit the number of cases of improper, discriminatory action where the perpetrator can actually be held accountable in a court of law.  For example, the bill legalizes unfair, discriminatory treatment of employees in the workplace if there can also be shown any other motivating factor for the treatment.

The bill also excuses persons acting on behalf of an employer from liability under the discrimination law.  Limitations on recovery of attorney’s fees make it less likely that otherwise unlawful conduct will be held accountable in a court of law, and the ban on punitive damages for public employers limits the court’s ability to punish unlawful acts in a way that will deter future wrongdoing.

Missouri NEA supports accountability that fosters confidence in our public schools and other public institutions and believes the existing “whistle-blower” protections should remain in place to help ensure that employees can play their role in providing that accountability. The bill significantly weakens the state’s “whistle-blower” statute by narrowly defining  the authority under which the protection exists, stripping the employees of many employers from any protection at all and eliminating the common law protection that currently reflects our core Missouri value that all employees should be able to speak up and help hold employers, especially public employers, accountable for faithfully performing their public duties.