Lake County Education Association

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President's Message

E-mail

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!

Everything teachers do in their classrooms and schools is the result of a governmental decision.

· FCAT

· End of Course Exams

· Benchmarks

· Special Ed

· Response to Intervention

· School grades

· School calendar

· Plan time

· FUNDING...or lack of it

· DROP

· Tenure

And the list goes on and on.

As professional teachers, we MUST be politically active. We have made great strides this year, but we need to continue our efforts. One of our members has decided to take that commitment to an all time level here in Lake County.

Our own dedicated teacher, Frank Wood, has declared his intention to become our House of Representative candidate for District 25 in 2010!! Frank is an economics teacher and LCEA leader. He is passionate about public education and sustainable revenue sources. THANKS TO YOU, FRANK!!

Visit Frank's great website at www.FrankWood.org.

If Frank can make that personal commitment, we can continue our commitment to continue

communication with those in Tally. The Senate budget proposal increased education support but the House budget proposal decreases funding! Please keep those cards, letters, and phone calls going to them.

As of this writing, the application for the Federal Stimulus waiver has not even been submitted. The direction and process from Washington is not complete. So will we actually realize additional funds?? Who knows!

Governor Crist has discussed a local funds holdback for the end of this school year! This fourth quarter funding holdback for Lake County is tangentially tied to the current budget. It is on paper, but has not been applied yet. It may be accounted for at the end of this school year and rolled into the beginning calculations for the 2009-2010 school year.

Our government officials need to hear from all of us! Let's pump of the volume and show them our dedication to public education. If Frank can

declare his commitment to lead, we can continue our part.

Thanks for all you do to keep quality public education in Lake County. Jim, Marla, and I are dedicated to you and will continue to do all we can to support you.

UNITED WE STAND. It's UNION work.

Together in teaching and learning,