Call Your Texas Senator To Block SB8 An Attack On Teachers

The attack on teachers continues in Texas. While we refuse to right tax corporations for providing them an educated workforce we are willing to cut the education that has provided a not great but good educated workforce. These short sighted politicians cannot see that the long lasting effects of these cuts to education will cause the eventual abandonment of Texas by corporations to the next state that is willing sacrifice its citizens for short term gain.

Texas residents Click Here to get your state senator’s Austin, TX telephone number and call him/her now and let them know they will pay at the ballot box if SB8 passes. This is your child’s, your grandchild’s, your young relative’s future. You put your trust in teachers to be stewards of your most precious resource, your child for 8 hours a day. You will not continue to get good teachers in a state that treats them like unskilled commoditized workers. CALL NOW

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Background Information

June 27, 2011

SB8 conference report – doesn’t fix budget, weakens education

The final version of Senate Bill 8 has emerged from conference committee, and it is as bad as ever. Please call your state representatives to demand they vote AGAINST the conference report on Senate Bill 8 when it hits the House floor this week.

It is important to call now because this version of the bill, if approved by both the House and the Senate before the special session adjourns on Wednesday, will go to the governor for signature into law. This bill attacks teachers, not the budget crisis!

• It would allow districts to order teacher furloughs for as many as six non-instructional days a year and reduce their pay accordingly.
• It would permanently remove the 2009 floor on teacher pay and allow districts to cut the pay of returning teachers who are already bound by contracts.
• It changes the deadline for notification of non-renewal of a teacher’s contract or termination of a probationary teacher from the 45^th day to the 10^th day before the end of instruction. This would give teachers who are laid off less time to find new jobs for the next school year.
• It allows school districts to declare a financial emergency at any time for purposes of imposing a reduction in force. Teachers would be fired instead based on the local appraisal tool and other criteria that the district may choose.
• It would eliminate a teacher’s right to an independent hearing in cases of mid-year terminations related to RIFs.

Ask your representative to refuse to participate in this unwarranted attack on teachers and public schools.