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COLLECTIVE
BARGAINING BILLS
House Bill 2030 (Jenee’ Lowe) and Senate Bill
1115 (Joan Bray) would establish a good collective bargaining
law for the roughly 400,000 public sector employees
working in Missouri. Missouri’s public sector
employees have reclaimed their constitutional bargaining
rights with a recent Missouri Supreme Court ruling on
May 29, 2007. Missouri NEA strongly supports both bills.
Public
education is an important portion of public sector employment.
Collective bargaining in schools is about working together
to provide great public schools for every student.
Important
decisions affecting our schools are best made at the
local level. Nothing is more “local” than
a collective bargaining process that gives a voice to
the educators who work most closely with students.
Collective
bargaining is a fair process that promotes shared decision
making and results in agreements that are binding for
both educators and school boards. The Supreme Court’s
decision allows public school employees the same rights
as everybody else. Collective bargaining creates a clear,
fair process for educators to engage in decision making
with employers and reach agreements that are legally
binding.
Local
educators are the experts on what students need and
how to attract and retain highly qualified teachers.
Collective bargaining directly involves employees who
work with children everyday in mutual problem solving
with school district administrators.
MNEA
will need a strong effort from members throughout the
session to educate Missouri legislators that collective
bargaining in schools is about working together to provide
great public schools for every student.
SPECIAL
EDUCATION VOUCHERS
House Bill 1886 (Dwight Scharnhorst) was referred back
to the House Special Committee on Student Achievement
on Feb. 26 by the House Rules Committee. The Student
Achievement Committee planned to quickly vote the bill
back out in a revised form on Feb. 27, but the committee
did not get “possession” of the bill back
from the rules committee in time for that meeting. The
Student Achievement Committee rescheduled its executive
session for Feb. 28 and voted back out a revised version
of the bill. The bill’s proponents are exerting
immense pressure to move the bill before spring break,
and H.B. 1886 will probably be voted back out and taken
up on the House floor next week.
The
bills would create an 80 percent tax credit for donations
to private scholarship funds providing payments for
disabled students to attend private or religious schools
or out-of-district public schools. The bills allow an
unlimited total amount in tax credits for “contributions”
to scholarship funds. The use of special education students
to further the school privatization agenda is an emerging
trend across the nation. As with previous school privatization
efforts in previous years, this bill does nothing to
fulfill the state’s primary duty: to establish
and maintain quality public schools. In particular,
the bills will do nothing to build the capacity of public
schools across the state to offer high quality programs
to disabled students. The credits would reduce state
revenues by nearly a like amount and force the state
to forego real opportunities to help all public school
students or to fund specific programs to help disabled
students attending public schools. Missouri NEA strongly
opposes any measure to transfer state funds to private,
religious or home schools that are not accountable to
the standards placed on public schools.
REVISED
ABCTE PASSES SENATE
The Senate took up Senate Bill 1066 for final approval
(Third Reading) on Feb. 27. S.B. 1066 requires the State
Board of Education to create another alternative teacher
certification based on certification by the American
Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence. A companion
bill, House Bill 1911 (Scott Muschany), was voted “do
pass” by the House Special Committee on Student
Achievement on Feb. 13.
Sen.
Matt Bartle delayed the vote for a while to point out
his dissatisfaction that his amendment to the bill to
add part of his S.B. 833 (differential pay for math
and science teachers) was defeated last week. The most
vocal Senate opponent of the proposal during the last
session, Sen. Joan Bray, also spoke at some length in
opposition to the bill. Floor Leader Charlie Shields
made it clear that he would keep the Senate in session
as long as needed to bring the bill to a vote.
Sen.
Bray was able to negotiate a late evening agreement
with Sen. Luann Ridgeway that, if the bill was allowed
to proceed to a vote, Sen. Ridgeway would seek to have
several improvements incorporated in the House committee:
requiring successful teaching evaluations each year
to maintain the certificate, using a state-approved
district mentoring program in preference to an ABCTE
mentoring program and requiring all ABCTE certified
teachers to pass the Praxis II exam on pedagogy to maintain
their certificate. These concessions will help make
sure the ABCTE certificate functions like other alternative
certification routes. All of the improvements and safeguards
included in the bill: limiting of subject areas to exclude
elementary and special education, inclusion of a sunset
clause, requiring the Praxis II test and requiring successful
evaluations each year to maintain the certificate, are
primarily the result of Missouri NEA's legislative leadership
and effort in standing up for higher standards of teacher
quality.
Following
the negotiations, the Senate reconvened and took up
the bill and passed it by a vote of 25-5. Given that
the House passed a similar bill last year, it seems
likely that the negotiated version of the bill will
pass both chambers and become law in 2008.
Several
Senate Amendments were adopted last week before the
bill was perfected:
1.
S. A.1 (Luann Ridgeway) adds a sunset clause to terminate
the ABCTE certification process in 2014 unless reapproved
by the legislature. S.A. 1 also clarifies that the ABCTE
process cannot be used for early childhood certification.
The bill already excludes elementary education and special
education.
2.
S.A. 3 (Tim Green) allows the state auditor to audit
school districts.
3.
S.A. 4 (Maida Coleman) provides that the commissioner
of education must get the approval of the Joint Committee
on Education for the expenditures of the $18 million
allocated annually to address statewide areas of critical
need.
TABOR
The House Budget Committee heard House Joint Resolution
70 (Allen Icet) on Feb. 27. HJR 70 is a constitutional
spending limit similar to the Colorado provision known
as “TABOR,” or the so-called “Taxpayer
Bill of Rights.” The HJR would impose a permanent,
constitutional spending limit on state government and
would limit annual growth in state appropriations to
a cost-of-living adjustment factor plus a population
growth factor. The HJR even includes requirements for
imposing further tax cuts if the spending limits are
operational.
Missouri
NEA strongly opposes this unneeded restriction. Legislators
should be able to construct a consensus revenue estimate
and appropriate according to that estimate. HJR 70’s
limit would cause Missouri government to shrink year-after-year
relative to the size of the overall economy. This measure
will permanently diminish the state’s capacity
to provide appropriate levels of public service and
will ultimately make the state a less desirable place
to live and reduce the state’s ability to attract
desirable employers.
“SCARLET LETTER”
The House gave final approval to House Committee Substitute
for House Bill 1314 (Jane Cunningham) on Feb. 28. The
bill includes several provisions affecting school employees,
including a provision to grant civil immunity on job
references. Missouri NEA opposes the bill.
The
bill does nothing to improve the process by which issues
or questions regarding employee performance or conduct
are adjudicated by a school district, leaving employees
without substantive due process rights that provide
access to a fair, impartial hearing to determine the
facts in the matter. Worse, the bill requires districts
to maintain data even on unsubstantiated reports of
employee sexual misconduct and require districts to
report this data to other districts on request if the
employee waives the right to keep such information confidential.
Failure to waive such rights will automatically serve
as a “red flag” to a potential employer
even if the information is related to a false allegation
or wrongful termination. This “guilty until proven
innocent” presumption will be profoundly unfair
to education employees.
MNEA
believes the bill should include substantive due process
rights for all education employees (or the ability to
bargain due process rights locally) and the requirement
that districts maintain and transmit records relating
to unsubstantiated allegations should be removed. The
Association also believes granting broad civil immunity
in this situation is both problematic and unnecessary.
Any such immunity should be narrowly worded to refer
to specific, adjudicated offenses by employees.
ATTACKS
ON UNIONS
The House Special Committee on Workforce Development
and Workplace Safety met on Feb. 27 and heard several
House Bills, including:
1.
H.B. 2094 (Steve Hunter) would impose numerous bureaucratic
mandates and restrictions on the operations of unions
which have public employees as members. The bill imposes
requirements regarding how dues are set, who may be
hired by the union and requires public disclosure of
financial information regarding the union and its employees.
The bill goes far beyond the requirements placed on
private sector unions subject to the federal Labor Management
Reporting and Disclosure Act. Missouri NEA opposes the
bill as an unneeded and bureaucratic intrusion into
the operations of public sector labor unions.
2.
H.B. 1477 (Jane Cunningham) specifically imposes additional
restrictions on the collection of political action contributions
by teacher organizations. While it is not clear from
the bill's wording whether the legislation applies to
the Association's practices, Missouri NEA also opposes
this bill as another bureaucratic intrusion on education
employee unions.
SENATE
EDUCATION
The Senate Education Committee met on Feb. 27 and heard
the following Senate Bills:
1.
S.B. 1072 (Scott Rupp) allows charter schools in any
district provided the charter school is sponsored by
a community college or four-year institution with an
approved teacher education program and provided that
at least 30 percent of the students at the proposed
charter school will be special education students. Missouri
NEA opposes expansion of Missouri’s charter school
law without first completing the study required to evaluate
the successes and failures of existing charter schools.
Enactment of clear standards for how sponsors of charter
schools will evaluate charter schools must be in place
so that policy makers know how charter schools are currently
working.
2.
S.B. 1078 (Scott Rupp) allows charter schools in any
provisionally accredited school district that operates
a K-12 educational program and serves at least 2000
students. The bill includes other provisions relating
to charter schools. MNEA opposes this expansion of charter
schools for the same reasons noted above: the lack of
evaluation of how charter schools are working and the
lack of clear evaluation standards for charter schools
by sponsors.
3.
S.B. 1084 (Maida Coleman) eliminates the state transportation
aid penalty for school districts operating magnet schools
as part of a master desegregation settlement agreement.
4.
S.B. 1085 (Maida Coleman) allows school districts to
participate in the A+ Schools Program irrespective of
their accreditation status.
The
committee also voted out several Senate Bills:
1.
S.B. 925 (Rita Days) allows districts to maintain permanent
records on digital storage media. The bill was voted
as a Consent Bill.
2.
S.B. 715 (John Loudon) provides additional funding to
school districts for school safety needs.
3.
S.B. 967 (Rob Mayer) allows Missouri Higher Education
Loan Authority to originate primary school loans. The
committee voted a Senate Committee Substitute version
of the bill.
HOUSE
ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION
The House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee
met on Feb. 27 and heard two bills:
1.
House Joint Resolution 44 (Tim Flook) proposes a constitutional
amendment raising the allowable level of bonded indebtedness
for school districts to 20 percent.
2.
House Bill 1374 (Charles Portwood) requires certain
school nurses to be paid on the same pay scale as teachers
with equivalent work history and working hours in their
district. MNEA supports the bill.
MANDATORY
TESTING FOR VETERAN TEACHERS
The House Special Committee on Urban Education Reform
met on Feb. 26 to hear House Bill 1476 (Jane Cunningham).
The bill requires certificated teachers to submit documentation
to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
every five years showing adequate scores on certain
academic assessments. Missouri NEA opposes mandatory
state testing of veteran teachers. This is an unneeded,
bureaucratic mandate that will distract from Missouri's
performance based teaching evaluation process which
is administered at the local level.
BUDGET
The House Budget Committee met several times during
the week to begin hearing presentations from the various
appropriations committees. The budget committee asked
all subcommittees to prepare a prioritized list of items
to cut. The budget committee will then draft the various
budget bills for the state agencies and programs. The
budget committee is apparently operating under the assumption
that at least $250 million in proposed expenditures
from the governor's budget proposal will have to be
cut in order to construct a balanced budget based on
current revenue expectations for the coming fiscal year.
It is not yet clear how much, if any, of the $250 million
in needed cuts will come from education funding. MNEA
will continue to advocate for adequate and equitable
funding for all school districts and improved support
for services such as early childhood education that
help students be successful in school.
TRANSPORTATION
MONEY GRAB
The House Transportation Committee met on Feb. 26 to
hear House Joint Resolution 67 (Cynthia Davis). The
HJR proposes a constitutional amendment distributing
10 percent of the general revenue growth to the State
Road Fund and the State Transportation Fund. The state
has engaged in a spending binge on roads and bridges
and has borrowed against some future revenues. Soon
the leveraging of spending will come to an end, and
the state will be forced to contract its expenditures
significantly. The HJR is an early expression of the
tension this reckless spending policy has created as
road construction interests seek to take general revenue
funds and divert them to road and bridge construction.
The adoption of Amendment 3 in 2004 was a similar diversion
of general funds to road and bridge construction, and
the state can expect to see other proposals to try to
shore up road expenditures with the general funds that
support schools and health care.
STANDARDS
FOR PETITION CIRCULATORS
The House gave final approval to House Bill 1763 (Mike
Parson) on Feb. 28. The bill would enact additional
standards for petition circulators. The bill prohibits
paying signature gatherers by the signature, a practice
that has been shown to lead to fraudulent practices.
The bill also requires signature collectors to be Missouri
residents, prohibits any person convicted of forgery
from collecting signatures and increases penalties for
signing false names on petitions.
Missouri
NEA supports the effort of H.B. 1763 and similar bills
to reduce fraud in the signature-gathering process for
initiative petitions. These efforts will help make sure
that the initiative process is truly reflective of issues
of concern to Missourians and not merely issues of concern
to well-heeled, out-of-state interest groups willing
to spend millions of dollars and engage in questionable
or fraudulent practices to get an issue on the ballot
in Missouri.
HOUSE
HIGHER EDUCATION
The House Higher Education Committee met on Feb. 26
to hear two House Bills:
1.
H.B. 1912 (Bryan Pratt) specifies that, if Missouri
loses a congressional district following the 2010 redistricting,
the ninth member of the University of Missouri Board
of Curators will be a student curator with voting rights.
2.
H.B. 1479 (Jane Cunningham) requires the governing boards
of public colleges and universities, community college
districts and school districts to take a roll-call vote
on school policy matters. MNEA believes these decisions
should be matters for local control, not a state mandate.
PROTECTING
MISSOURI'S FAIR AND IMPARTIAL COURTS
The House Special Committee on General Laws continued
its hearing on Feb. 26 on several House Joint Resolutions
affecting Missouri’s Non-Partisan Court Plan:
1.
HJR 49 (Stanley Cox) increases the number of governor-appointed
members of the Appellate Judicial Commission from three
to five.
2.
HJR 52 (Jim Lembke) abolishes the nonpartisan commission
entirely and establishes a partisan process for selecting
appellate judges.
3.
HJR 67 (Juanita Head Walton) proposes to amend the selection
process or judges.
The
Missouri Nonpartisan Court Plan is essential for the
state to select qualified judges in a way that limits
partisan politics in the selection process. This non-partisan
plan is so effective that a majority of states have
adopted the “Missouri Plan.” Fair and impartial
courts are vital to democracy and the preservation of
our rights, including the fundamental right of access
to a great public school. MNEA opposes the joint resolutions
and urges the General Assembly to refrain from any changes
in the Missouri Non-Partisan Court Plan.
PSRS
The Senate Pensions, Veteran’s Affairs and General
Laws Committee was scheduled to meet on Feb. 27 to hear
several bills including four bills requested by the
Board of Trustees of the Public School Retirement System,
but the hearing on those bills was cancelled to allow
time for other bills. The bills related to PSRS include:
1.
S.B. 1153 (Jason Crowell) prevents nonprofit educational
associations or organizations from having their employees
join PSRS or PEERS after June 30, 2009.
2.
S.B. 1154 (Jason Crowell) allows teacher and school
retirement systems to indemnify and protect trustees
and employees.
3.
S.B. 1155 (Jason Crowell) allows the PSRS Board to combine
funds for teacher and school employee retirement systems
for investment purposes only.
4.
S.B. 1156 (Jason Crowell) modifies numerous provisions
relating to teacher and school employee retirement systems,
including the provisions of the preceeding three bills
plus other technical provisions requested by the board.
CAPITOL
ACTION DAYS
Capitol Action Days continued this week. A series of
Capitol Action Days throughout most of the session will
allow planned, face-to-face contact with legislators
throughout the session. Capitol Action Days will be
on Tuesdays and Wednesdays through the first week of
May. Your MNEA calendar includes the dates that members
of the MNEA Board of Directors selected for your governance
district.
If
you are not able to attend on these designated days,
feel free to contact Otto Fajen (otto.fajen@mnea.org)
to arrange to attend a different Capitol Action Day.
Each Capitol Action Day will start with a briefing at
10:00 a.m. to provide you with the most up-to-date information.
Typical
Capitol Action Day Agenda
10:00
a.m. Meet for briefing, 2nd floor Capitol rotunda, Senate
side alcove under the grand staircase
10:15 a.m. Visit with your legislator/watch floor debate
12:00 noon Invite legislator to lunch
1:00
- 4:30 p.m. Committee hearings, floor debate, visiting
legislators
FINDING
INFORMATION ABOUT BILLS
To find out more about legislation this session, go
to: http://www.mnea.org/capitol/legissues.htm.
This page contains numerous links, including the NEA
Legislative Action Center, which addresses key education
issues at the federal level, and the Missouri NEA Legislative
Action Center, which will address key education issues
at the state level. This page also will contain links
to legislative updates, the MNEA Legislative Platform,
legislative priorities and other policy-related links.
To
find information about a specific bill currently pending
before the Missouri General Assembly, go to:
http://www.house.mo.gov/billcentral.aspx.
Type the bill number (example: HB1000) or sponsor name
in the “search” box to find a link to the
bill. This link will take you to a “home page”
for the bill that provides bill text, bill summaries,
fiscal notes and information on legislative action on
the bill.
PLAN
TO ATTEND YOUR MNEA LEGISLATIVE BRUNCH
Legislative involvement is close to home at your MNEA
Legislative Brunch. The brunch is a great opportunity
to visit with local area legislators and hear a legislative
briefing.
Area
legislative brunch schedule:
St.
Charles – Mar. 8, 2008
St. Louis – Mar. 15, 2008
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