NEA Teacher's union HATES tax cuts (except for them)

[Gopher Broke]

Education Insider A weekly review of progress on the Quality Public Schools Agenda and other legislation that impacts our students, classrooms, and public education.

May 30, 2003

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Congress Returns from the Memorial Day Recess

IDEA "On your mark?get set?the next round is about to begin!" The Senate's IDEA reauthorization bill has been in the wings since the House bill passed on April 30. The long-awaited Senate bill may be introduced in early June.

The 'highly qualified' definition: The House bill imported from the "No Child Left Behind Act' the definition that requires all teachers to have a degree or pass a subject matter test in each academic subject they teach. This definition fails totally to recognize the multiple subject matter teaching assignments of thousands of special educators. These special education teachers who competently teach core academic subjects under a student's IEP would be declared 'unqualified.'

The Senate must "fix" this definition. NEA believes teachers licensed under state law as special educators should be deemed 'highly qualified.'

Time Sensitive Urge your Senator to oppose any provision that would simply copy for special educators the NCLB "highly qualified" definition and to support defining a special education teacher with state special education certification or licensure as "highly qualified."

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Paying to Teach -- Out-of-Pocket Costs State fiscal woes and education funding shortfalls mean more frozen supply budgets and school employees digging deeper into their pockets for classroom materials.

The current deduction for out-of-pocket classroom expenses allowing educators inclusively -- teachers, counselors, principals, and education support professionals -- to recoup at least some of what they spend, expires this year.

H.R. 785 [Camp (R-MI), Pryce (R-OH) and Tanner (D-TN)] would:

Make permanent the above-the-line deduction [Above-the-line deductions apply whether or not a taxpayer itemizes.]

Increase the maximum deduction from the current $250 to $400, and

Expand allowable expenses to include professional development. The 10-year benefit to educators would total $3 billion.

Time Sensitive! To move the bill forward, we need to maximize support now. Is your Representative a cosponsor? (123 to date) If not, ask your Representative to support tax relief for teachers and education support professionals by becoming a cosponsor of HR 785.

If yes, please send your thanks. ?

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Government Relations 202-822-7300 http://www.nea.org/lac 1201 16th Street, NW Washington, DC 20036

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[Michael.SF.]

i hear my fat bitch sister in law (a local teachers union president) nasty mean screeching voice and it feels like a rusty fork splitting a dozen or so of my vertabra with no anesthetic while having teeth yanked out with a tractor trailer

Stop beating around the Bush. Tell us what you really think of your sister-in-law and her voice.

[certify]

TEACHERS UNIONS are part of the U.N

[Michael.SF.]

Paying to Teach -- Out-of-Pocket Costs State fiscal woes and education funding shortfalls mean more frozen supply budgets and school employees digging deeper into their pockets for classroom materials.

Bogus, BOGUS, BOGUS!!

Case in Point:

Contra Costa County, Calif. Department of Education

My wife works for them as a Therapist for Special needs kids. Budget last year had surplus money in it and they were instructed to "spend it or lose it."

Puchases included:

3 vans to transport the kids. (not needed, ordered w/o proper restraints. Now used by teachers and others as transportation w/o kids).

Printer - sized for poster size printouts. Used by teachers and others for celebrations (showers, Welcome Homes etc.) Individuals must pay for the Ink)

10 Digital Cameras - Most cameras were taken home, by those lucky enough to be 'in the know'.

Seminar on how to use the cameras. Conducted on school time aas an "inservice".

Yes, my wife is Union, she has to be to work there. But she is not happy about it.

[RipeforTruth]

Well, I got into a chat room like you suggested.

I do not ever want to go there again (and I've been to many places in my life).

Thanks for the info.

[Eva]

The quality of public school education is inversely proportionate to the growth of the NEA.

[RobbyS]

Actually it is inversely proportionate to the amount of money that is spent on the public schools, but because less and less is spent on instruction and more and more on propogada for causes in alliance with the Unions. And remember that the unions could do nothing except that they are closely allied with administrative associations, teachers' colleges, federal and state educational agencies,and textbook companies. Collectively they are known as the educational establishment.

[Mr. Silverback]

WEAC, the Wisconsin teacher's union, recently posted an article on their website detailing how easy it is to retire outside Wisconsin. Why would someone want to spend their golden years outside the Dairy State, you ask? Because it is a tax hell, and even WEAC admits it, encouraging their membership to retire elsewhere so their pensions won't be drained away into the state treasury. This despite WEAC never meeting a tax hike or social program they didn't LOVE.

[Eva]

You are, of course, right. Maybe we could charge them under RICO.

[yoe]

A great part of the $35 billion goes for 'overhead', i.e. more jobs in the front office of schools. Precious little trickles down to the students needs be it supplies or just good teachers. Any school that accepts federal funding must also go by federal guide lines - of what and how to teach. Good textbooks are hard to find, ones that tell the truth in simple language without cartoons poorly drawn and spoken in 'jive' language. Deliberate dummied down and then some.

[Sonny M]

If they don't want tax cuts, have them send their tax cut to me... I'll take it.

What bothers me, is that while these a$$h0l3s are whining, we didn't give enough tax relief to our folks over in Iraq, the rats fought it, tooth to nail, and Frist and Hastert, for the sake of compromise, gave in, for the good of the nation ( I do understand), but damn, my blood boils that we could't extend the capital gains loophole to them, at least.

[buffyt]

My sister is a teacher in Calif. She likes Gray Davis because he passed some kind of bill so that she will make a couple thousand more a year. Some kind of tax break. She likes that. But she wouldn't want YOU to get a tax cut!

[flim-flam]

Yes, my wife is Union, she has to be to work there. But she is not happy about it.

Union membership is not a condition of employment in any state.

[RobbyS]

The "late" Bill Bennett (he is now throughas a moralist, so he might as well be dead) once described school administration as"the blob" because as secretary of education he saw how it absorbed up most federal monies. Conglomerates have now bought up the big textbook companies and make a ton of money each year because California and Texas adopt state-wide editions. So the choices availle to other schools is limited.

Let us not forget the scam of requiring new versions of textbooks every five years when older versions will do. Or buying expensive hardbacks when paperbacks will do.(how often do we need new calculus texts or how badly do the students in calculus classes mistreat books. (For God's sakes why NOT mark them up!and if they DO trash them, make the sob's PAY for new ones.)

[unixfox]

Teacher Feature...

Millionaires Receive Tax Break While More Children Enter Poverty.

from The Children's Defense Fund

This was all I had to read from the "TEACHERS.NET" website. These are the people educating indoctrinating the future of this country.

[M0sby]

Yep, these are the kinds of things I hear all of the time from the people with whom I work!
I'm a Special Ed teacher in Washington~ can you imagine?

There is a car in my lot with several bumper stickers like "No War in Iraq", "No blood for oil" etc... Right next to the big, main bumper sticker which reads, "FREE TIBET!". Always makes me wonder...
BTW, we can opt out of being in our Union but not paying the fee. I stay in so I can vote and know what is going on. I was actually part of the Executive Union Leadership group for a year so I could see what they really do.
Most actions were really benign (SP?) but there was one meeting where they were going to address political postcards during the meeting and the President had to remind them that they couldn't do political business during the "non-political" meeting. It was kind of funny to see the reaction of people to me when they discovered I was a Conservative. They TRULY cannot believe that someone they already know and repect (and like) could be an evil Republican. I work with one man who grew up in the hick part of Nebraska. He siad he had never met a Conservative who wasn't a backwards goofball. We actually have some really great conversations.
Many of the Dems I work with are great people who make up their own minds about issues and candidates. It is the lemmings who drive me crazy! They vote for exactly who and what the Union tells them. Including I-200 which helped to stop Affirmative Action Programs and another which reduced car tabs! The Union has an opinion on everything and somehow they always figure out a way to connect to Education $$$ so they can advise the members how to vote!

BTW I LOVE MY JOB and it saves all of us money if I do it right!
It is always my goal to teach my special ed kiddos everything that they can do for themselves so we don't have to pay for someone to do it for them for the next 50 years!

[Vaduz]

It's all about money and power and nothing else.

[Michael.SF.]

Thanks for the informaton.

Actually, "has to" was a poor choice of words on my part and were selcted in haste. I should have said:

"Due to peer pressure she feels she has to be a member of the Union, so as to not have problems with her co-workers."

[flim-flam]

I can understand the peer pressure because I'm a Beck objector myself, even though I work in the private sector. In my case, it was one union corruption scandal too many, which forced my conscience to act. Nobody at work bothers me about this and my co-workers actually respect my position. Even my steward is chummy with me. IMO, resignations serve a a useful check on union power grabs. Having said all that however, resigning may not be the best option for everybody, given individual situations. Others may wish to work within the system to effectuate positive changes.

[ladylib]

Here is an interesting story about a highly rated high school in NYC and how the teachers union almost stopped an unlicensed but highly qualified math teacher from teaching there:

http://www.educationnext.org/20033/20.html

The article is fairly long, but worth reading.