Campaign ‘08

Join the campaign for children and public education

If you and your local affiliate are not part of a plan for action in Campaign 2008, it’s time to step up to the plate. Public education has much to gain and much to lose with the outcome of the 2008 elections.

Why is this election important to you? Why does it deserve time from your busy schedule?

You cannot afford not to get involved.

Here are the top four reasons you need to get involved.

• Collective bargaining. Passing an effective collective bargaining bill requires a supportive legislature and governor.
• Vouchers. Vouchers or tax credits take public school money to give to private and parochial schools. Parents deserve to have a choice for where their children go to school, but every child has a right to a quality public education. Without public money for that right, public schools will perish.
• Funding. We have a formula for our public school system that is inadequate. It CANNOT feed our public school system what it needs to thrive and what it needs to fulfill federal mandates.
• Low standards for teacher certification. The American Board for the Certification of Teacher Excellence drops the bar for teaching standards. ABCTE allows anyone with a bachelor’s degree and $500 to buy into the profession.

These are issues we face now and will face again in the 2009 legislative session. They are critical to providing a quality education for Missouri’s children. Without legislators who understand and respect the role of Missouri’s public schools, we have nothing to look forward to but despair.

Now is the time to make a commitment for public education. Get involved in Campaign 2008. Just visit www.mnea.org to learn how you can get involved in the biggest game of the year.

MNEA’s candidate recommendation process

Recommending candidates is serious business for Missouri NEA and NEA. Members measure candidates against issues important to children and public education. MNEA’s and NEA’s involvement in the political process is always issue driven rather than party driven.
How does the process work?

1. All viable candidates for state and national government offices are invited to participate in the MNEA Political Action Committee and the NEA Fund for Children and Public Education process used to determine which candidates will be recommended to members.

2. In January of election year, the MNEA PAC evaluates incumbents’ voting records, their role in recent victories against using public tax dollars to benefit private and religious schools and their support for measures that would provide full funding for public education. Eligible incumbents may receive an early recommendation. When an incumbent receives an early recommendation, opponents will not receive consideration.

3. After filing closes the last of March, all candidates not receiving an early recommendation receive questionnaires. MNEA Government Relations staff prepares the questionnaires based on key MNEA issues likely to be discussed during the campaign and /or likely to be acted on in the next legislative session.

4. Government Relations Team chairs coordinate the interview process. Interview committees of MNEA members discuss issues you care about with candidates. Candidates are measured on the basis of their commitment to strengthening public education, ensuring children’s health and safety, maximizing student learning and respecting school employees, including support for collective bargaining rights and a law that outlines a bargaining process.

5. The Government Relations Team chairpersons submit the interview committee recommendations to the MNEA PAC. Based on information from the questionnaires, local screening committees and MNEA government relations staff, the PAC Executive Council makes the final determination of which candidates receive the MNEA recommendation.

6. The process is the same for candidates for federal office, except MNEA PAC sends its evaluation to the NEA Fund for Children and Public Education, which makes the final decisions on which candidates to recommend for U.S. Congress.

Historic changes call for bold action
PAC fundraising makes a difference in legislative success.

Missouri NEA just succeeded in its longtime advocacy effort to reclaim collective bargaining rights for all education employees. Now it’s time to elect lawmakers who will pass a law that defines an effective collective bargaining process.

For far too long, educators have had to rely on the “good will” of their employers to make improvements in salary and working conditions.

If local associations are to elect school board members and state legislators who believe public school employees deserve a meaningful voice at the bargaining table, they need your help.

The “$8 in ‘08” campaign calls for every member to commit $8 each month in 2008. Please follow up with your members and encourage their participation in the campaign. Your contributions are an investment in the rest of your career in public education.

For more information on contributing to PAC, contact your local president or building representative. You can also learn more at www.mnea.org/gr/contrib.htm.

Your guide to absentee voting

Missourians who are not able to go to their polling place on Election Day may vote absentee beginning six weeks prior to an election.

Absentee voters must provide one of the following reasons for voting absentee:

• Absence on Election Day from the jurisdiction of the election authority in which such voter is registered to vote
• Incapacity or confinement due to illness or physical disability, including a person who is primarily responsible for the physical care of a person who is incapacitated or confined due to illness or disability
• Religious belief or practice
• Employment as an election authority, as a member of an election authority, or by an election authority at a location other than such voter’s polling place
• Incarceration, provided all qualifications for voting are retained

Voters can request absentee ballots from their local election authority in person or by fax. Faxed absentee ballot requests should be submitted to the appropriate local election authority. Relatives within the first degree (parents and children) may complete an absentee ballot application, in person, on behalf of the voter who wishes to vote absentee.

The Absentee Ballot application must be sent to the appropriate local election authority by Oct. 29 in order to be valid.

sb, spring '08