Home
Calendar
President's Message
E-Update from B
Bargaining
About Us
Member Benefits
Recruitment
Press Center
Resources
LCEA Elections
Cynthia Schumacher Scholarship...LCEA Members Only
Glossary of Lake County Terms
Teacher of the Year
Recent News
Political Action
2009 Senate and House Contact Information
AFT.org
Florida Education Association
Contact Us
 |
Home
|
QuEST 2009 Highlights
Highlights from the recently concluded 2009 AFT QuEST conference in Washington, D.C., included AFT president Randi Weingarten's keynote address, a town hall meeting with U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, a panel on community schools and remarks from U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis. Daily updates from the conference, as well as video highlights, can be found on the AFT's QuEST 2009 Web site. |
 On June 22, President Obama announced a nationwide service initiative, United We Serve, which is the beginning of a sustained, collaborative and focused effort to meet community needs and make service a way of life for all Americans. |
Dear Politically Active Colleagues,
Many times I hear, "I'm a teacher. I don't want to be involved in politics." As a nurse, I just wanted to provide quality care for my patients and their families and not worry about politics. As the health care climate changed, I realized the legislators in Tallahassee and Washington were making decisions regarding my nursing service. That's when I started paying attention...
When I became a teacher, I realized that the education decisions were being made by non-educator legislators who were not supporting quality public education. That's when I really began paying attention!
|
Call to action...it's up to us!!
Our individual and collective votes and voices are important and must be heard by our elected legislators! Will they listen? I don't know. But they hold the purse strings for our profession and therefore for our classrooms.
|
Prevent More Budget Cuts
We would encourage you to begin contacting Senator Carey Baker, Representative Alan Hays and Representative Marlene O’Toole. Let them know that the implementation of further budget cuts during the current school year will devastate schools. Funding reductions would harm students and are actually unnecessary if the Florida Legislature would act decisively to utilize federal stimulus funds currently available to fill the general revenue deficit that is being projected.
|
Bargaining
The labor movement in this country is at a critical juncture. Now more than ever we need advocates not only for teachers, but students as well. Our bargaining team strives to work cooperatively with the school board and administration to protect your rights and to make those hard decisions that we face.
Jo Ann Applewhite, Bargaining Team
|
|
|