email from VEA Teachers Union (BARF ALERT)

[Gopher Broke]

May 1, 2008

Dear xxxxxx,

The 2008 Legislative Session officially ended on April 23rd.

A special session on transportation will follow. We will need to work in that session to protect the General Fund and make sure that dollars that should go to schools don't go to roads

But, we can reflect and hopefully learn from the most difficult 2008 session. VEA bills fared poorly; in many cases because there was no money. There is new money for education, on a per-pupil basis 7.4% in 2008-09 and 1.5% in 2009-10. Considering the budget constraints, this is remarkable and reflective of successful lobbying by the education community.

However, the defining aspect of the session for education advocates was the failed attack on Standards of Quality funding for our schools. Fifty four Republican members of the House of Delegates tried to cut state support for public education by $175 million per year. Fortunately, Senators from both parties stood with the Governor to stop them. Please act now to hold those who attacked our funding formula accountable.

Four changes , all of which cut funding to local school divisions, were proposed and all but one were defeated. The remaining change caps inflation at 5%. Using gasoline costs as an example, the General Assembly will recognize a 5% increase in the cost of fuel despite the fact that costs for gas have almost doubled since that expense was last updated. This change cut $10 million per year from SOQ funding.

With a lot of help from our friends, we did stop the major changes to the funding formula. These changes would have reduced funding far into the future.

VEA lobbied hard urging members of the House to vote against these cuts. Fifty-four members of the House voted wrong on the $175 million dollar question. I ask you to help make voters aware of this vote, and I ask you to make sure that these fifty-four legislators know that we are both disappointed and hopeful - disappointed that they cast this vote and hopeful that they will do better by education in the 2009 session.

For this reason we are taking an unprecedented action. If you go to www.veanea.org and click on "Virginia's Children: A Wise Investment" (bottom right story) it will lead you to a one page explanation of how this vote would have cut funds to the school divisions in each of the fifty-four delegates' districts. In most cases, you will also see how much local taxes would have had to go up to make up for these cuts. The fifty-four need to know that we know what they were trying to do, and they need to know that they will be held accountable for this and all future votes hostile to the interests of Virginia's children. Please take the time to check this out.

Education Week recently had an article revealing the pay gap between teachers and those in other occupations with similar qualifications. The article is well worth reading.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2008/04/30/35mishel_ep.h27.html?print=1

This information may help as we talk with policy makers.

Finally, if you haven't checked out Tom Chapin's web page and heard his "It's not on the test ballad you should.

http://www.notonthetest.com/statement.html

Thank you, Robley Jones

VEA GR

[From The Deer Stand]

Teachers Union Exposed

[From The Deer Stand]

For some reason the link didn't work.... try the address:

www.teachersunionexposed.com