Reform Alert

Reform Alert
There are just three weeks left for legislators to work on getting education reform done right.
REFORM ALERT – Our Media Messaging

1) President’s Phone Call – Stand up for Education: Attend an upcoming CEA rally.
2) Next Steps – Take action now.
3) New Media Messages – Newspaper ads and articles supplement our “explosive” TV and radio ads.

1. President’s Phone Call Message – Stand Up for Education—Attend a Rally

CEA President Phil Apruzzese will be calling you, asking you to join him and your colleagues at CEA sponsored rallies at the State Capitol next week.  “These rallies are a show of solidarity and strength that is necessary to maintain our momentum on school reform,” said Apruzzese.

Attend a rally on Tuesday, April 24 or Wednesday, April 25 and stand up for children, teachers and public education.  

Sign up at cea.org, under upcoming events, or log in here to participate. Bus transportation will be provided from cities and towns across the state.

2. Next Steps - Take Action Now

We appreciate all of you who have been busy writing letters, sending emails, calling legislators, submitting editorials and letters to the editor of local newspapers, appearing on radio and television shows, and getting teachers’ voices into the conversation.

We urge you to continue contacting your legislators. Tell them that you support parts of Substitute SB #24, specifically elements that do the following:

• Restore collective bargaining to enhance teaching and learning conditions.
• Decouple evaluation, certification, and salary schedules.
• Improve the teacher evaluation system by ensuring that evaluation plans will include collaboration, professional development supports to continually improve teaching, and the validation of a new rating system.
• Enhance teacher standards by recognizing and requiring a master’s degree for the professional certificate.
• Create a new distinguished educator designation.
• Provide funding for needy districts for wrap-around services (social-emotional supports, family support, and physical health and wellness) and family resource centers.
• Create 1,000 new pre-K slots.

Further Improvements
Please call, write, and email TODAY and remind legislators that they need to improve upon Substitute Bill #24 with the following actions:

• Elevate the teaching profession by instituting a fair, streamlined teacher dismissal proceeding with a just cause, due process, final and binding hearing—one afforded other employees in the public sector.
• Eliminate any reference to “money follows the child” funding, since cash-starved schools cannot afford to lose resources.
• Require accountability and certification for superintendents.
• Ensure that charter schools serve the same academically diverse student populations as public schools.
• Encourage more parental and community involvement in schools.
• Add more literacy programs in schools.

Contact your legislators using the link and phone numbers below, and tell them a better way to improve education starts by listening to teachers.  Now is also the time to set up back home meetings with your legislators, or call and invite them to meet you at the rally you attend.
www.cga.ct.gov/asp/menu/CGAFindLeg.asp  
Senate Democrats 1-800-842-1420               Senate Republicans  1-800-842-1421
House Democrats 1-800-842-1902                House Republicans  1-800-842-1423

3)  New Media Messages
The headline in today’s Hartford Courant op-ed sums it up best-- Teachers Union Battles Powerful Interests.  The battle continues until May 9, the last day of the legislative session, so we have just a few short weeks left to get our message to legislators that reform must be done right.
By now, we hope you have all seen and heard our new TV and radio ads, currently on the air. The media has been writing numerous articles about them, which you can read at cea.org.
Now, we have added print to our media messaging mix. Numerous op-ed articles written by CEA President Phil Apruzzese and CEA Executive Director Mary Loftus Levine are being printed in the daily newspapers across the state.  On Thursday, CEA is placing a paid print advertisement in every daily newspaper in the state. Watch for it, called A Fundamental Choice in the Debate over Education, in your local newspaper.
As the battle continues, teachers must reach out to legislators, urging them to consider the teachers’ viewpoint as they move forward with education reform.

Your continued activism, combined with our media messaging and our upcoming rallies, will ensure that legislators continue hearing teachers’ concerns and will support elements of Substitute SB #24 that will get education reform done right.
Thank you for all your efforts.