Reform Alert--The Final Week

Reform Alert As of tomorrow, the countdown begins on the final week of the legislative session. It is imperative that legislators continue to hear from teachers about your ideas to get reform done right. Your emails, letters, back home meetings, phone calls, texts, and testimony have created a continuous drumbeat for positive reform. Now is not the time for silence. Your advocacy must continue. Contact your legislators using the link and phone numbers below, and tell them a better way to improve education starts by listening to teachers. 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 Watch & share rally video CEA Communications has produced a video overview of last week’s rallies at the State Capitol. We encourage you to watch it and share it as it provides examples of what your colleagues are saying and feeling about how the legislature can get reform done right. Watch the rally video at cea.org or YouTube. Teachers 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. 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. Substitute SB #24 can be improved with the following actions: · Elevate the teaching profession by instituting a fair, streamlined teacher dismissal process with just cause, due process, and a 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. Thank you for all your hard work, Phil Apruzzese Mary Loftus Levine CEA President CEA Executive Director