In Galesburg alone, an estimated 550 GEA members showed up wearing matching shirts and displaying a united voice.

All of the locals’ messages were clear. We are strong and we need strong schools to build strong communities and a strong economy.

The message was received enthusiastically by parade watchers in Alton, Champaign, Danville, Galesburg, Streator and Rockford.

Strong schools, strong communities, strong economy.

Photo courtesy of the Galesburg Register-Mail.

We made major concessions on public employee pensions at the state level last year, compounded by hundreds of concessions at hundreds of bargaining tables across the state over the last few years.

Yet we still had to mount an all-out effort to beat back even more cuts to our pensions in the last few weeks.

The state budget on Gov. Pat Quinn’s desk calls for $171 million in education cuts, including $152.2 million in General State Aid. When does this end?

Politically, IEA has never been more mobilized. Thousands of members have been engaged in the process, most for the first time. We have built strong coalitions with other unions and organizations we barely had relationships with several years ago.

Simply saying “no” is not a program. We successfully passed a state income tax increase this year, increasing the rate to 5 percent from 3 percent.

The problem is we have a regressive tax system which taxes our poorest citizens at a much higher rate than our richest citizens…three times as high. This is happening at a time when income distribution has dramatically increased upward to our richest citizens. Taxing people who have no money yields few results.

IEA recognized this when our Representative Assembly voted to pursue a state constitutional amendment to allow for a progressive income tax based on the ability to pay.

At first, it doesn’t seem to make sense.

Michelle Rhee, the controversial former head of the Washington D.C. school system and the “star” of the anti-union documentary Waiting for Superman, wrote a column for the Huffington Post defending collective bargaining.

That’s right. The woman who famously fired scores of teachers as the D.C. schools chancellor (firings later ruled to be improper) wrote inher column that, while state and local governments certainly need to get a handle on costly items such as pensions…

“…In no way does this mean we should take away teachers’ rights to collectively bargain.”

And

Collective bargaining for wages and benefits is not the reason American schools fail. Even in “right to work” states that do not have collective bargaining, we still see many of the problems that hurt our schools: bureaucratic inertia, red tape limits on parent choice, seniority-based layoffs, and fiscal irresponsibility. Overseas, many countries see teachers unions drive high standards and expectations for all teachers.

At first it might seem as though Rhee has finally grasped some facts left out of Superman; that Finland, cited in the film as a country with an ideal public school system, has strong unions; that the data show schools in states where teachers have bargaining rights out-perform those in states which don’t.

But before you start thinking that the age of enlightenment has finally reached Michelle Rhee, there is this:

The problem is not collective bargaining. The problems arise when unions use collective bargaining to push for policies that devalue great teachers, such as insisting that all teachers should be treated as interchangeable in terms of performance and pay.

Unions should have every right to continue representing their members, speaking up for teachers as they negotiate salaries, professional development and benefits. But they should not actually be co-managing school systems, and many decisions do not belong on the bargaining table. For example, it would present a huge conflict of interest for unions to be negotiating performance evaluations when unions have to represent effective and ineffective teachers alike. Districts should be able to create evaluations, reward teachers’ success, empower parents with more choices, and run the school system while held to high standards for accountability and success.

This is the trap that Rhee and others want to set for education employee unions; laud them for their work on behalf of their members and suggest that only that work, for their members on compensation and professional development, is appropriate for a union.

What is inappropriate in her view, is for teachers to have a voice about teaching and learning conditions.

Rhee’s new business venture, StudentsFirst, is among several “reform groups,” that hope to redefine the work of the unions representing teachers so that the ability of teachers to have a say in their work is limited.

Beginning last year in Illinois, there was a similar attempt made to define IEA and the other education unions as “focused on the needs of adults” while, it was claimed, “the reformers,” were the only people concerned about the students in the system.

It was a cynical claim designed to divide teachers from their students and pave the way for proposals that would impair the ability of teachers to advocate for high quality teacher and learning conditions.

The plan took a hit when IEA joined with the Illinois Federation of Teachers and the Chicago Teachers Union to develop an alternate reform plan, “Accountability for All,” that would help improve teaching and learning while streamlining systems in a way that will help maintain high teaching standards.

The reformers, to their chagrin, were forced by the legislature to negotiate with the unions. Those talks have been going on since early January with a goal of developing a proposal that all the parties – teachers, reformers, administrators and others – can support.

By demanding a seat at the table, Illinois teachers were able to advocate for the ultimate goal of making sure Illinois continues to attract and retain high quality teachers.

All polls show the quality of education that students receive in public schools is a top concern for Illinois voters. Working to protect and enhance that quality is very much the business of the unions representing school employees.

And don’t let Michelle Rhee or anyone else tell you different.

Rhee-diculous (cont)

Rhee came to be a national figure by claiming that, by taking rights away from her district’s teachers, she was able to implement changes that sent test scores soaring.

It now appears there might have been some funny business involved:

A USA TODAY investigation, based on documents and data secured under D.C.’s Freedom of Information Act, found that for the past three school years most of Noyes’ classrooms had extraordinarily high numbers of erasures on standardized tests. The consistent pattern was that wrong answers were erased and changed to right ones.

In 2007-08, six classrooms out of the eight taking tests at Noyes were flagged by McGraw-Hill because of high wrong-to-right erasure rates. The pattern was repeated in the 2008-09 and 2009-10 school years, when 80% of Noyes classrooms were flagged by McGraw-Hill.

On the 2009 reading test, for example, seventh-graders in one Noyes classroom averaged 12.7 wrong-to-right erasures per student on answer sheets; the average for seventh-graders in all D.C. schools on that test was less than 1. The odds are better for winning the Powerball grand prize than having that many erasures by chance, according to statisticians consulted by USA TODAY.

“This is an abnormal pattern,” says Thomas Haladyna, a professor emeritus at Arizona State University who has studied testing for 20 years.

Rhee’s defense wasn’t what one could call “data-based.”

“It isn’t surprising,” Rhee said in a statement Monday, “that the enemies of school reform once again are trying to argue that the Earth is flat and that there is no way test scores could have improved … unless someone cheated.”

USA TODAY’s investigation into test scores “is an insult to the dedicated teachers and schoolchildren who worked hard to improve their academic achievement levels,” Rhee said.

It is a little ironic, as Rhee has tried to position herself as the person with all the answers.

This is the sort of thing that could be bad for her business. We’ll see how it unfolds.

UPDATE: Rhee, perhaps after seeing how “Nixonian” her comments looked, more or less recanted them.

charlie.mcbarron@ieanea.org

Samuel Clemens: ‘Figures don’t lie, but liars figure.’

By Jim Broadway, Publisher, State School News Service

March 21, 2011 – Back in my lobbying days I was reminded of that quote from Mark Twain when a state senator demanded that I explain why SAT scores had declined from the 1960s to the 1980s despite “our historic increase in education spending”?

I was caught off guard. I didn’t know the answer. I didn’t even know where the question came from. It bore no relation the bill under consideration.

In retrospect, I realized the senator was referring to a graph that had been included in the 1983 federal publication called A Nation At Risk. It was a crude graph, just a line sloping gently down to represent ACT score trends during that time period.

It would be 1995 before I learned the true answer. It was clearly explained by Bruce Biddle and David Berliner in The Manufactured Crisis, a scholarly examination of many spurious charges against public education launched in A Nation At Risk.

The answer is this: Aggregated SAT scores did decline during those two decades, but when the scores are divided into segments (Berliner and Biddle disaggregated them into quintiles, high to low), average scores within each segment actually increased.

How could that be? Here is how. College-bound students take the SAT. In those years there was a great increase in students going to college. A high percentage of them were first-generation college students, minority and less affluent students.

Understandably, these students’ scores generally grouped in the lowest-score quintile. Consequently, even though the average scores in each quintile rose, the size of the lowest-score quintile soared. That lowered the aggregated average score a bit.

So American educators had two successes – higher SAT scores by each segment of test-takers and an increase in young people prepared and motivated for higher education – but A Nation at Risk calculated them into an educational failure.

Out of the blue, A Nation At Risk accused public educators of “a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people.” Why did they do that? The U.S. economy was then, as now, in a shambles. Someone needed to take the blame.

I no longer lobby. I’ve been clean since 1998. But I remain wary of raw data.

The trick used by the writers of A Nation At Risk is very effective and commonly used by liars who figure. You see it today in the rhetoric of those who profit politically by attacking public sector employees as “overpaid” in comparison with the private sector.

Media accounts are full of arguments that public employees need to “adjust to economic reality” and to share sacrifices, especially in their retirement programs, as if they were somehow culpable in the fiscal crises created by policymakers in many states.

A perception is fostered that public sector employees have cushy jobs with golden benefits packages and are oblivious to their neighbors’ economic stress. Do public employees earn more than the average private sector worker? Or are public employees underpaid?

When you sift the data for a solid answer, it is “yes” – to both questions.

Just as SAT test-takers, in the aggregate, include definable constituencies whose ratio to the whole must be accounted for in analysis, so do public- and private-sector employees, in the aggregate. In the latter case, the primary difference-maker is – education.

The analysis is mind-numbing – therefore perhaps beyond the average legislator – but research is based on irrefutable data. Last year’s seminal report by the Center for State and Local Government and the National Institute on Retirement Security found:

(1) State and local government employees are twice as likely to require a college or advanced degree for their jobs as private sector employees. But public employees are paid less than private sector employees with “comparable earnings determinants (e.g., education).”

In the 20 years under study, public employees’ pay declined relative to that of comparable private sector employees even as, because of the education gap, it remained slightly higher in the aggregate. (If you’re reading the report, see Page 7.)

(2) It is true that “benefits (e.g., pensions) comprise a greater share of employee compensation in the public sector,” but even taking that into account public employees pay a “penalty” of 6.8% to 7.4% for choosing public rather than private employment.

For those who believe government should be run like a business, the researchers conclude: “If the goal is to compensate state and local sector employees in a manner comparable to those in the private sector, the data do not call for reductions in state and local wages. If anything, they call for increases.”

Similar findings and conclusions are reported by the Economic Policy Institute.

There’s an argument to be made that the very question of whether public employees are paid too much relative to private sector workers is a red herring. There is a more relevant question: Why did employee incomes stagnate in both sectors since 1980?

EPI data show that employee wages have been largely flat for two decades, but productivity – a measure of wealth generated in the economy per employee – has soared. Where did all that wealth go? It seems to have flowed, as usual, to the already wealthy.

I’ve occasionally pointed out trends in wealth distribution, in Illinois and nationally, and effects research says they have on public schools (poverty concentrations, dropout rates, achievement gap). I sometimes hear a concern that I’m fomenting “class warfare.”

Close your eyes to it if you wish, but that war began in 1980. The wealthy started it but did not send out a news release. The data has since documented this reverse-Robin Hood wealth redistribution, but data are too boring or complicated to affect public opinion.

Now that the economy has tanked with huge effects on state and local government budgets, those who caused it need a culprit, as they did in 1983 in blaming public educators in A Nation At Risk. This time, the culprits are public employees at all levels.

To comment, click here.

Jim Broadway © 2011 All Rights Reserved

 

We knew what was coming when we got a call last week from the Tribune’s reporter in charge of executing the mission of the paper’s editorial board — to strip public employees of their pensions.

Because of our history, we decided to send a statement on IEA’s pension policy, rather than give an interview. You can read President Swanson’s statement here.

We thought it odd that our decision to reply in writing didn’t result in some protest. We’ve only done this in one other case.

But it now makes sense. Our involvement wasn’t really necessary to the story, which, it appears, was written long before we were contacted.

Wednesday’s front-page NEWS story, Illinois teacher pension system nearly $40 billion in the hole, states that the latest figures indicate that the Teachers Retirement System (TRS) is 48.4 percent funded.

That’s very low. But it’s not really what you would call “front-page news;” everyone knows TRS is underfunded. The state has underfunded pensions for three decades. But all bad news about pensions warrants front-page coverage by a paper whose dog was apparently run over by a public pension recipient. (Read the TRS response)

What is interesting is some of the language in the “news story”

“They (educators) blame their retirement system’s financial hole on the state, for failing to make all payments into government pension systems.”

“To be sure, districts have contributed to the rising costs of pensions.”

Now, what if we take those two thoughts and construct two indisputably truthful statements?

To be sure, the state has contributed to the financial hole by consistently failing to make its payments into the pension systems.

Some (legislators) blame school districts for contributing to the rising costs of pensions.

You see what happened there? The paper’s version casts doubt on the claims of TRS annuitants, even though it is absolutely true that the state’s failure to meet its obligations has made TRS’ funding level an issue.

The front-page placement coincides with the launch of a radio attack ad by an anti-pension group with the same goals as the Tribune’s editorial board. The ad is funded by the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago, which includes on its board at least two former top Tribune executives.

There couldn’t be a connection. After all, we’ve been told repeatedly that the news and the editorial departments are completely independent of each other.

So it must be a coincidence. Right?

Right?

It will come as no surprise to you that there are teachers and school support staff throughout Illinois who put their heart and soul into their work every day. Or that these men and women, who typify public education employees, are found in schools throughout the state and chose a career in public education because they wanted to have a positive impact on students.

But, there are many Illinoisans who get their information about public schools solely from sources that don’t care all that much about public school students. Therefore, those folks hear almost uniformly negative news about education employees – pensions, salaries, etc.

Relatively little positive information is communicated by traditional news media. (which is why every IEA local should have a PR program – it’s easier to take things away from a people if the value of their work on behalf of their students, communities, and our state, is minimized or ignored)

Making sure everyone understands what public education and school employees contribute to their students and communities is the goal of the IEA’s Great Schools for Illinois campaign.

In the campaign, IEA members, in their own words, talk about why they work in public education.

You might have seen two of the new videos, featuring Oswego bus driver Fred Kilcullen (a retired teacher) and Centralia teacher Tron Young. There will be more to come.

We think these are great stories and we hope you will share them with your colleagues and friends. Please go to the Great Schools for Illinois facebook page and click the “like” button. Then use the “share”button to spread the word.

How teachers are like tight ends

One of the great things to have happened since Wisconsin hit the fan is the support for unionized public employees that has come from unexpected people. Especially noteworthy was Green Bay Packer star (and Packer players’ union representative) Charles Woodson who, as a player for a publicly owned enterprise, came to Madison to show support for the public employees under attack by Gov. Walker.

Mark Murphy, who heads Woodson’s team, seems to have a different view of unions and the wisdom of allowing workers to have a say in their working conditions, compensation and post-career life.

“… the transition for players from playing in the NFL to finding another career and establishing themselves is very difficult, and I really wonder, sometimes, if we do too much for the players. They’ve got severance pay and a 401(k) plan…And so I’m a little worried that if we do too much for players in terms of compensation after their career’s end, and health insurance—it’s not all bad to have an incentive to get a job.”

Nation columnist/blogger Eric Alterman notes the paternalistic tone.

“Severance, a retirement plan, and five whole years of health insurance, hmmm, maybe that’s too good for you, son.” Something tells me, though, that a lot of former players might wholeheartedly disagree that their retirement package and the guarantee of health insurance coverage only until their early 30s constitutes anything close to “great.” Especially when they see numerous examples of legendary veterans dying penniless and wracked with health problems for decades. But the NFL’s more subtle approach to undermining its union members’ benefits is just a more PR-savvy tactic in a larger, conservative strategy that seeks to erode the power of labor.

First step: Demagogue union employees—whether it’s teachers or tight ends—as overpaid good-for-nothings. Next, work to dismantle the union’s future efficacy by gutting its organizing and bargaining power. And then go after the pensions and healthcare packages, again using the cover of budget shortfalls as an excuse to renege on benefits contracts and funding obligations.

There is a major labor rally planned for Chicago on April 9. Details will be coming out shortly. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, check the IEA Capitol Report and check the IEA Website regularly. We expect the pace at the statehouse, with legislation regarding education reform, pensions and more, to pick up considerably once the General Assembly returns March 29.

Teacher/poet makes a difference

This has been around a while, but it never fails to get us pumped up. Enjoy Taylor Mali’s hilarious, meaningful rant.

Anderson to CPS?

According to the e-publication Catalyst, former IEA Executive Director Jo Anderson is among the candidates to become the CEO of the Chicago Public Schools.

He has held a variety of positions with IEA-NEA, working on efforts of the union to involve its leaders and members in improving student learning and the public school system in Illinois. In 1987, he helped found the Consortium for Educational Change, a network of 75 school districts throughout Illinois working on school transformation through collaborative partnerships. He was executive director of CEC for 18 years. He has a background in community organizing and was affiliated with the Industrial Areas Foundation.

Not everyone handicapping this contest sees Anderson as a contender.

By the way, CPS CEO is a post previously held by, among others, Anderson’s current boss, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

A CEO, a union public employee, and a Tea Party member are sitting at a table. In the middle of the table is a plate with a dozen cookies on it. The CEO takes 11 cookies, looks at the Tea Partier, and says, “Look out for that union guy, he wants a piece of your cookie.”

It would be a funnier story if it weren’t so accurate a portrayal of what is happening on many newspaper editorial pages and on the national news broadcasts. Public employees are “greedy” because they want to maintain their voice in the workplace? Really?

The news media, for the most part, seems to have developed mass amnesia.

It’s as if no one remembers that unions were formed to ensure that workers were not exploited and had safe, clean working conditions in which they could do their best work.

It’s as if the fact that unions representing public school employees brought professionalism to the teaching profession never happened.

It’s as if the fact that unions made teaching a career that could (and continues to) attract high quality men and women has been completely forgotten.

It’s as if no one thinks about what sort of resources would be available for students if unions didn’t advocate for support for public schools.

It’s as if no one has thought about what school buildings would be like and how big classes would be without the unions.

Fortunately, there are a few journalists left. One of the best denies that he’s a journalist at all.

Jon Stewart’s Daily Show has been on fire all week, separating the truth from the hooey in the Wisconsin situation.

Stewart has been charting a middle-of-the-road course for himself in the last year or so, too often suggesting, for example, that the left-leaning talking heads on MSNBC are the flip side of the creative liars presented as “fair and balanced” commentators on FOX News.

However, in the last few weeks, Stewart has made it clear where he stands on the issue of labeling teachers as greedy union thugs who should have no voice in their workplaces.

It’s good for public school employees that those whose mothers taught in public schools, as Stewart’s did, tend to take this sort of thing personally

While the viewers laugh, they’re being educated about the issue.

Catch up with the full week of Daily Show episodes here.

Op-ed

Like you, we’re very tired of education employees being disparaged in public. That is why IEA issued an op-ed column to all Illinois newspapers to remind them of the role IEA members have long played, and continue to play, in making public schools better and to promote the union-developed Accountability for All proposal.

The op-ed has been picked up in a few papers so look for it in your local paper.

The events in Madison, Wisconsin over the last few weeks provide the latest proof that traditional news outlets no longer are the primary thought leaders.

Twitter, facebook and blogs are where the information is these days.

We’ll have some news about e-information vehicles coming up very shortly, so please so keep an eye on the IEA Website as well as our twitter and facebook posts.

Did you know that the biggest demonstration in Wisconsin’s state capitol in 40 years took place Saturday?

Of course you did. Illinois education employees are tuned in to what’s happening in Madison because they “get” what Gov. Scott Walker is trying to do to public employees.

They know he’s determined to still the voices of working men and women who, if he has his way, will soon have virtually no collective bargaining rights.

They know this is a huge story that could have a massive impact on our country and impact all working people, union and non-union, well into the future. They know that, if the unions are destroyed, there will be no group with the financial resources to challenge the corporate pirates who are out to subjugate the working people of this country.

Call us crazy, but that sounds like a pretty big story. Yet, the news media, the so-called liberal news media, can’t seem to give a rat’s rectum about what’s happening.

Paul Krugman in the New York Times finds something familiar about the lack of coverage:

I don’t watch cable news, or actually any kind of TV news. But I gather that there’s a virtual blackout on the huge demonstrations in Wisconsin, except on Fox, which portrays them as thuggish and violent.

What that makes me think of is January-February 2003, when anyone watching cable news would have believed that only a few kooks were opposed to the imminent invasion of Iraq. It was quite spooky, realizing that hundreds of thousands of people could march through New York, and by tacit agreement be ignored by news networks whose headquarters were just a few blocks away.

And it’s even more spooky to see it happening all over again.

So, on the national TV news Sunday night, no live reports from Madison, if there was a mention at all.

The CNN radio and NPR hourly news at 4:00 pm Sunday, the time at which Gov. Walker had indicated he planed to clear the statehouse of protesters (he later backed down, temporarily), contained no mention of the plan to forcibly end the demonstration.

More evidence: NEA President Dennis Van Roeckel has a lot to say about this situation, as one of his unions, the Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC), is at the forefront of the protest. However, the closest he’s been able to get to being on national television this week was an appearance on the FOX Business Network, which is a small step above being totally invisible.

When they haven’t ignored it totally, the national news media has, for the most part, mishandled this story. They spent the first week completely buying into Gov. Walker’s claim that this was about a budget crisis and they didn’t change their tone until well after all of the unions agreed to the governor’s financial terms, causing him to admit that, well, yes it’s also about union busting.

And they might have still looked the other way, had not the governor been on the receiving end of one of the all-time great prank phone calls.

There have been exceptions. MSNBC’s hosts in general and, Ed Schultz (The Ed Show), in particular, have performed admirably. Credit also needs to go to FOX News’ Shepard Smith, possibly the bravest man on a national network. He has been unafraid to tell the truth about what’s happening in Madison to an audience that, you can be sure, can’t handle the truth.

Another positive; David Gregory grilled Gov. Walker on Meet The Press Sunday, giving him a harder time than any other national media figure. But the point remains the same. The national media is indifferent to a monumental story.

On a much smaller scale, the fact that 1,000 or so people came to the Illinois Statehouse on a cold Saturday afternoon to show support for the Wisconsin public employees wasn’t considered interesting enough for a mention in the Springfield newspaper.

What all these “news outlets” are doing is making a great case for their own extinction.

Anyone who wants to know what’s really going on can get on the Internet and find out. Twitter has been on fire throughout the Madison protest. Social media doesn’t do blackouts.

But despite the alternatives, it’s disappointing that these “watchdogs” have gone to sleep.

It doesn’t matter whether its incompetence or malice. The impact is the same.

We can’t count on anyone else. We’ll have to watch out for ourselves. Stay tuned.

The riveting political drama that has unfolded in Madison, WI, over the last few days has drawn the attention of the nation and the world.  However, much of the national media doesn’t appear up to the challenge of covering it accurately.

The outlets that unquestioningly replayed Gov. Walker’s disingenuous talking points have obscured reality and inhibited the ability of the public employees to have a conversation with the public through the traditional media channels.

This isn’t about money

One can’t fault Walker for wanting everyone to focus on the money. In a bad economy with high unemployment, money is the great divider.

If this is about money, Walker gets his way. Because there is no money.

So, much of the national coverage has focused on the fact that Walker’s proposal would dramatically increase the contributions of employees for insurance and retirement.

So, if you were relying on the major networks and CNN (and FOX, of course) for your information, you would think this was all about the money and that the public employees were merely balking at the suggestion they pay more for their benefits at a time when many people just want a job.

It’s so simple. It’s all about “Greedy public employees who aren’t willing to share some of the pain everyone else is experiencing.”

Of course, the truth was/is quite different.

All of the unions have agreed to negotiate on money and most of them have already agreed to Walker’s financial demands, forcing the governor’s real agenda into the open where all can see.

This is about union-busting. Nothing else.

This is about denying working men and women the right to have a voice in their workplace.

In public education, this is about teachers being denied the opportunity to bargain for smaller class sizes for students. If districts decide they can save money by packing kids into classrooms like sardines in a can, who will stop them?

Who will lobby legislators for the resources to educate children?

Who will fight to stop the increasing attempts to divert public money to private schools?

Who will fight to make sure that teaching remains a profession that is able to attract and retain top-quality instructors?

Or to state the negative, who will want to attend public schools if they are run like factories with all the emphasis on costs and none on what is best for students? And what sort of people will want to teach in those schools?

Without a union, who will advocate for education quality?

What we can do

Looking into the coming week, we’ll see if the 14 Democratic senators can stay strong. The more the public understands what is truly at stake here the better the chance that some sort of compromise can be reached, and Republican state legislators realize why they must stand with the working families of Wisconsin.

When you discuss the situation with your colleagues, be sure to talk about it accurately:

• This protest is about public-sector employees retaining a voice in their profession and Wisconsin’s future.
• The proposed legislation strips away worker rights and destroys the collaborative partnerships that have been established between labor and management in Wisconsin.
• It’s not about pay and benefits, pensions and health care.

Three things you can do now

1. Ask everyone you know to sign the petition on Education Votes website:
2. Ask your colleagues to “Wear Red for Ed” to support public education beginning Tuesday, February 22nd and every Tuesday this spring
3. Email information about local or state solidarity actions to campaignhub@nea.org

The attack on unions has been devastating. The response from public employees and the general public has been inspiring.

Now more than ever, we need to stick together.