Thousands of Education Supporters Engage in Community Outreach Events

Yesterday thousands of teachers, education support professionals, parents, students, and other public education supporters took part in the AEA March4Schools Statewide Day of Action. Reports are still coming in from all over Arizona about activists reaching out to community members to share their stories about the impact of budget cuts on our schools. AEA Lobbyist Jennifer Loredo heard from many legislators throughout the day who asked her about receiving several phone calls from constituents. Here are the highlights from March4Schools:

• 600 people, including parents, staff, and administrators attended a rally at Tumbleweed Park in Chandler to get together to share information about current legislative actions. AEA recommended candidate for Superintendent of Public Instruction, Penny Kotterman, spoke at the event.
• In Tucson 400 people gathered at a rally in Reid Park to promote the role of public schools in the community.
• A voter education event with 400 in attendance was held at Higley High School. Activists helped people register to vote, passed out voting records of current legislators and presented new candidates.
• 300 education supporters attended a rally at Kiwanis Park in Tempe in a celebration of public education that will help increase awareness about what the legislature is doing. Penny Kotterman also spoke at this event.
• 300 attended a rally at Rillito Park in Amphitheater to support public education. AEA Vice President Andrew Morrill spoke at this event.
• 300 people attended a picnic at Riverview Park in Mesa for a rally and to make 2,000 phone calls to legislators.
• In Marana about 240 AEA members and their children, parents, and education supporters held rallies at eight polling sites to display positive messages about Prop 400. There was great support from the community with traffic honking and waving as they drove by.
• In Glendale about 180 people took part in the Unity Rally at Murphy Park to bring the Glendale community together to support public education.
• 100 education supporters marched at the Town Square in Prescott.
• Another 100 marched in Dysart to promote their district override.
• In Cartwright and Washington Elementary school districts activists walked door-to-door to educate the community about the impact the state legislature is having on public schools.
• In Parker about a fourth of the people who vote came out for a rally. The rally raised visibility of education issues in the community.
• Each school site in Paradise Valley had an activity planned throughout the day, such as handing out legislative voting records to parents, door knocking, flagpole meetings, or calling legislators to tell them their actions will have an effect on voters in the primaries.

The list goes on and on. Check out the media coverage of March4Schools. View photos from the day online. Share your photos by e-mailing them to sheenae.shannon@arizonaea.org. Tell us your story about March4Schools!

In cooperation with The Education Coalition and the National Education Association, the AEA hosted a summit with participants ranging from business leaders to classroom educators. It became apparent that there was far more common ground among participants than differences in opinion. The AEA and its partners decided to create a video to capture the similarities. Over the next several weeks you will be receiving a video from the AEA. Please take a few minutes out of your day to watch these videos.

Now, having learned more about Arizona’s budget crisis and what our state is facing over the next few years, please join us in the conversation by blogging your comments below. Be ready for next week’s video which discusses how Arizona’s political system is causing many of the issues we’re facing today.

Today the Arizona Education Association filed a special action petition with the Arizona Supreme Court against Governor Jan Brewer and the 49th State Legislature targeting policy changes made in the 3rd special session of the Arizona State Legislature aimed at teachers and other school employees. The policy changes allow arbitrary reductions in salary, prohibit seniority as a criterion for reduction in force, eliminate deadlines for issuing contracts, and limit employee rights to engage in professional association activities.

John Wright, president of the Arizona Education Association, said, "These policies represent a complete abandonment of legislative leadership. The special session was called to address Arizona's budget deficit; instead, the legislature mysteriously determined that removing contract security and allowing salary reductions for career educators was a more appropriate focus. The interests of Arizona's families, students, and economy were completely ignored."

The policy changes were passed by the legislature and signed into law by Governor Brewer as part of the 3rd special-session budget package. According to attorney Roopali Desai, HB 2011 violates the state's Constitution and thus is null and void.

Desai, an attorney from Coppersmith Schermer & Brockelman PLC., said, "In House Bill 2011, the Legislature violated the Arizona Constitution in at least four ways. The bill modified teachers' employment contracts in an emergency special session that was called for the purpose of creating a budget, even though the employment terms that were changed are not related to the budget.

"This violates provisions of the Constitution intended to prevent precisely what happened here---the use of a special session to pass unrelated legislation that likely could not have been passed during regular session."

The special action petition states that, "The Arizona Legislature exceeded its authority under the Governor's call for special session when it enacted Sections 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, and 76 of HB 2011, which modify existing legislation relating to the employment of teachers by public school districts. These provisions are not appropriations and are not related to the state budget. In addition, the Legislature's enactments fail to comply with constitutional provisions requiring single subject legislation and prohibiting impairment with contractual obligations."

An excerpt from the special action suit as it was filed with the Supreme Court:

I. SECTIONS 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, AND 76 OF HB 2011VIOLATE THE ARIZONA CONSTITUTION BECAUSE THEY ARE UNRELATED TO, AND GO BEYOND THE SCOPE OF, THE SUBJECTS IDENTIFIED IN THE GOVERNOR'S CALL FOR SPECIAL SESSION.

II. SECTIONS 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, AND 76 ARE VOID BECAUSE HB 2011 VIOLATES THE ARIZONA CONSTITUTION BY ENCOMPASSING MORE THAN ONE SUBJECT AND COMBINING UNRELATED LEGISLATIVE GOALS, WHICH ARE NOT EXPRESSED IN THE TITLE OF THE ACT.

III. SECTIONS 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, AND 76 ARE VOID BECAUSE HB 2011 VIOLATES THE ARIZONA CONSTITUTION BY COMBINING GENERAL LEGISLATION AND UNRELATED APPROPRIATIONS IN A SINGLE, NON-GENERAL APPROPRIATIONS BILL.

IV. SECTIONS 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, AND 76 VIOLATE THE CONTRACT CLAUSES BECAUSE THEY NULLIFY EXISTING RIGHTS AND BENEFITS IN PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS' EMPLOYMENT CONTRACTS.

V. SECTIONS 16 AND 76 OF HB 2011 ARE VOID FOR VAGUENESS.

March4Schools turned out a huge number of teachers, education support professionals, students, parents, working families and other public education supporters. The rally launched a statewide grassroots movement to change the course of a state legislature that up to now, has failed to make public education a priority in Arizona. The rally forced our Governor to reverse earlier statements against considering new taxes.

Much is left to be done. The March4Scools rally that ended with education supporters completely circling the Capitol grounds will now move into communities throughout Arizona. Stay involved and tell you friends to join us as we continue to “march for schools, march for students, march families” until public education becomes the priority of Arizona’s elected officials.

Tell us about what you plan to do back at your school and your community to build support for public education. Tell us about your experience at the rally; what you saw and heard.

View video of rally

We need you to March4Schools and tell state legislators not to balance the budget on the backs of children. View the video below and share with others to rally education supporters to the Capitol on March 4.



Visit march4schools.com to get the day’s agenda, maps and directions, rally toolkit, bus instructions and directions, and more. It’s time to March4Schools!

Hundreds of schoolchildren scored some reading touchdowns when they huddled with stars of the gridiron on January 30, 2008, to kick off NEA’s Read Across America, the nation’s largest reading celebration.

While millions of Americans await the outcome of Super Bowl XLII—whether it be the New England Patriots scoring a perfect season and a Super Bowl win or the New York Giants nabbing a historic upset — students showed they got game across the Valley of the Sun when National Football League players provided some reading inspiration at two Phoenix elementary schools.

Read the entire story. What are some ways you motivate students to read in your classroom? How do you plan on celebrating Read Across America on March 3?

Last night, KAET's Horizon took a look at this question and hosted a panel of education leaders as they discuss options and opportunities to make the state more responsive to the needs of its students. Scheduled guests included former Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Lisa Graham Keegan, Arizona Business and Education Coalition Executive Director Susan Carlson, and Arizona Board of Regents Vice President Ernest Calderon.

AEA President John Wright is shown in the beginning of the program offering his ideas on how to improve education in Arizona. Watch the video of the program and leave a comment on some of your solutions.

Arizona's voters may be asked to consider sweeping changes to school districts on the ballot in November 2008. A group commissioned by the Arizona State Legislature, the School District Redistricting Commission, is addressing school district unification.

The potential ballot referendum would ask voters to approve the unification of elementary and high school districts, creating new, sometimes-larger districts to serve students from kindergarten through high school. This would, in fact, eliminate many school districts while forming new ones under reconstituted lines defined by the ballot measure.

The Arizona Education Association believes that there is great promise in delivering seamless instructional curriculum from kindergarten through 12th grade. The deliberations of the School District Redistricting Commission offer a valuable public forum to describe the best possible configuration of schools in order to best meet students' needs. Unfortunately, the commission appears ready to move forward on redistricting recommendations without completing the needed deliberations. It has left too many questions unanswered.

Voters must have all possible information when making decisions that will affect their children's school and the communities our public schools serve. School district unification will significantly impact the lives of students, parents, and school employees in every affected community. Commissioners themselves have posed some important questions that remain unaddressed. They are exactly the kinds of questions tax-paying parents will want to consider before voting:

• I have been very pleased with the quality of my child's education. How can I be sure that continues?

• The districts in question have different property tax rates. What will happen to my taxes?

• The districts in question have different salaries. How do I know what employees will be paid?

• One of the districts has a Career Ladder performance pay plan. Can the new district keep that plan?

• Unification might cost money in the short term. How will additional costs be absorbed without hurting education?

• What happens if the new unified school district does not have a high school facility?

• One of the districts receives desegregation funding. Will the new district?

This is just a sample of the questions that still need to be answered. The commission has identified some of these concerns on its public Web site and offered possible responses. But the response "the new board will determine that" is too often the answer. Voters deserve some more certainty. Some of the commissioners themselves are asking for more certainty, also. Let's not have such important proposals advance on a split vote of the commission.

A decision on a referral at this point is premature and will be vulnerable at the polls. We can answer these questions - even if it means taking legislative action to get those answers. It is irresponsible to ask the voters to make an uninformed decision when such haste is unnecessary. Let deliberations continue, and let's not have unnecessary division and uncertainty.

John Wright, a classroom teacher, is president of the Arizona Education Association.

The AEA website is updated everyday with articles from across Arizona about education and issues in our classrooms. Visit the News & Views section of the AEA website daily to keep up with the latest news!

Read the original article by clicking here

Now read the AEA response by clicking here