Thanks to everyone who called

Thanks to everyone who helped support our fellow K-12 educators in stopping the non-budget, anti-teacher bills that were disguised as fiscal measures to "help" Superintendents deal with the budget crisis.

On Tuesday expect to see a full report of Higher Education Legislation. There are still two more days and we are watching closely for any indication that SB354 (known in some circles as the living dead legislation) will be resurrected yet again. It also looks like we have significantly limited HB9, Outcomes Based Funding.

THANKS TO ALL TFA/TSTA MEMBERS WHO CALLED AND EMAILED

Anti-teacher provisions bite the dust

With the legislative session winding down to Monday’s adjournment, TSTA is happy to report that all the anti-teacher, anti-public schools legislation that has been lurking about for most of the session has died, thanks to the thousands of calls, e-mails and visits to the Capitol from our members and other public education supporters.

Thank you for your strong support and for reminding your lawmakers how bad these ideas were.

Senate Bill 1811, which is expected to win final House and Senate approval today, includes revised funding formulas that will distribute $4 billion in budget cuts among school districts over the next two years. But it will NOT include amendments to raise the 22-1 class size cap in K-4, repeal the minimum salary schedule, allow teacher furloughs, cut teacher pay, eliminate seniority or otherwise damage teacher employment rights.

Thanks to your calls, all those provisions from the late House Bill 400 were NOT resurrected.

House Bill 6, the educational allotments bill, also expected to receive final legislative approval today, will NOT include amendments expanding charter schools.

And, a proposal to create a private school voucher program also has gone away, at least for this session.

Thanks again for your help. The budget cuts were bad enough, but without your calls, it could have been much worse.