MEA Votes

A school in Rhode Island that gained national attention after it fired it's entire teaching staff after students returned with low testing numbers, is now changing its tune and has rehired back the 87 person staff.

School employees have given almost $1 billion over the past three years in salary and health insurance concessions. You pay hundreds – if not thousands – out of pocket every year for basic instruction supplies. You fund your continuing education and training to keep your skills sharp for your students. You work with increasing class sizes and decreasing resources. The vast majority of you pay into your retirement system and pay out of pocket for your health benefits.

Apparently, your bosses – or at least their statewide organizations – don’t care.

Yesterday, the “SOS: Save our Students, Schools, State” campaign, a group of school management organizations, released its reform agenda. While MEA agrees with their central premise that our school funding system is broken and needs to be overhauled, that’s where our agreement ends. SOS has apparently chosen to ignore the sacrifices made by its own employees by insisting that even more be taken out of your hides.