Your Union

This Saturday, May 20 we will be gathering at 11:15 at the Snelling and University Light Rail station to travel to Education Minnesota for the Rally for Public Education!

Where: Meet at Snelling Avenue Station

When: 11:15.  We will travel by light rail to Education Minnesota Headquarters

It’s the last chance to:

• Rally for the schools, our kids deserve with parents, students, community members and hundreds of educators just like you.
• Stand for the students on the margins who need us the most.
• Tell legislators face-to-face to stop playing risky games with our children’s futures and start investing in their success.
• Support Gov, Dayton in his fight for public schools and colleges.

This July Dan Beck, Emily Bergquist and Gregg Martinson will be travelling to Boston to participate in the National Education Association’s annual convention.  We would like to travel to Boston with good news for our national union that our members want to help elect pro-education candidates.

The NEA Fund is our voice in Washington—it speaks on behalf of our 3.2 million members from all 51 affiliates of the National Education Association. As the NEA’s national PAC, the NEA Fund provides direct financial support to recommended candidates for President, the U.S. House, and the U.S. Senate who will fight to support teachers, staff, and students and improve public education.

The NEA Fund also supports pro-public education candidates in gubernatorial and other important state races as well as making independent expenditures asking people to vote for or against candidates based on their position on public education.

Every member who contributes to the NEA Fund does so voluntarily. Every dollar contributed to a candidate, a political party, or independent expenditures is voluntarily given. NEA does not use dues dollars for this purpose. Just as the NEA Fund relies on small contributions from thousands of members, the NEA candidate recommendation process is driven by NEA membership. NEA never recommends or endorses a candidate for federal office without the support of State Association leaders.

You can help by contributing on our fundraising page, here.  Thanks

Education Minnesota’s Educator Policy Innovation Center (EPIC) recently released a policy paper on transforming discipline practices in Minnesota public schools from an exclusionary approach to a restorative approach. April Jackson , teacher at Central Park, was part of the statewide committee examining current discipline practices and recommending structural changes to how school districts implement discipline. An executive summary of the report can be found here.

The Legislative Commission on Pensions and Retirement is considering major changes to TRA contributions and benefits. The Board of Trustees has proposed a package that is balanced and should help keep the fund strong for generations.

Unfortunately, some are using this situation to propose unnecessary benefit cuts and increased active member out-of-pocket contributions. These ideas will exacerbate the teacher shortage and are designed to hurt public education.

Please call your legislators and the pension commission and indicate your support for the TRA proposal. The plan is thoroughly vetted and is the fairest way to ensure that our pension remains strong!

Feel free to contact your legislators through this link.