#TRSCareisanemergency - PUBLIC ED AND OUR SUPPORTERS UNITE TODAY! MAKE YOUR CALLS!

            In some ways, I feel ashamed of myself.  Despite the unexpected and devastating blow public-education retirees took January 1, 2018, at the hands of the 85^th Texas Legislature, I still held out hope that Gov. Abbott would declare TRS-Care (Teacher Retirement System of Texas healthcare) an emergency item at the start of the 86^th Texas Legislature.  But that was 17 days ago, and that hope has vanished.

            March 29, July 17, and December 12, 2018, Rep. Terry Canales sent letters to Gov. Abbott. In March, Rep. Canales asked Gov. Abbott to call a Special Session to address the healthcare nightmare public-education retirees are living.  (Once again, although it is called the “Teacher” Retirement System, it is not only for teachers.  TRS covers the healthcare of our bus drivers, secretaries, sign-language interpreters, classroom aides, librarians, school nurses, maintenance workers, custodians, cafeteria workers, administrators, and all other public-education employees, as well.)  In July and in December, he asked the governor to make TRS an emergency item.  In his December 12 letter, Rep Canales writes…Since my initial letter, my staff and I have met with your staff on several occasions but have been unable to obtain a commitment to allow the legislature to immediately address this issue in the upcoming legislative session.  I respectfully request that you make our teachers a top priority by declaring public-school employees health care an emergency item. As you know, the Texas Constitution prohibits the House and Senate from passing legislation during the first 60 days of a regular legislative session unless either chamber suspends the rule by a vote of four-fifths of its membership, or if the legislation is an appropriation or other matter declared by the governor to be an emergency…The executive and legislative branch must work together to ensure that additional state funding is provided to the Teacher Retirement System of Texas for retiree health care and to school districts for active employee health care so that we can give Texas teachers what we promised them:  access to affordable good-quality health-care coverage…

            January 7, Sen. José Menéndez sent out a press release regarding Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar’s announcement that the Biennial Revenue Estimate indicates that the State of Texas will have $119.2 billion (with a b) in revenue for general-purpose spending during the 2020-2021 biennium.  Sen. Menéndez called upon his fellow legislators to address the mess that is TRS.

            I know Gov. Abbott has heard countless stories of the suffering that has been endured by public-ed retirees (and those still working in our public schools) since January 1 of last year.  However, these stories, and the pleas from Rep. Canales and Sen. Menéndez, have all fallen on deaf ears.

            So now it is time for US to UNITE!  In this CALL TO ACTION, I am pleading with all public-education unions and associations to UNITE.  We can no longer work separately, competing rather than joining forces.  Only if we UNITE will we be strong enough to roll back the devastating changes that were made to our healthcare and to other pension-related issues.

• ·         ATPE – UNITE
• ·         TASA – UNITE
• ·         TASB – UNITE
• ·         TASRO -- UNITE
• ·         TASSP -- UNITE
• ·         TCTA – UNITE
• ·         TEPSA -- UNITE
• ·         Texas AFT and all of your locals – UNITE
• ·         TSTA – UNITE
• ·         UEA – UNITE
• ·         All other public-education employee unions/associations -- UNITE

I am hoping other unions in our state will join us.  We need you!

·         AFL-CIO – UNITE

·         CLEAT -- UNITE

·         SEIU Texas – UNITE

·         TMPA -- UNITE

·         TSAFF – UNITE

·         All other Texas unions – UNITE

And I am also asking all school board members and community members (including current and former students and your parents) to join us as we UNITE!

            So how can we UNITE?

·      1.  Starting TODAY, please call (and, if you are a union/association, ask your members too, as well) the office of Governor Greg Abbott at 512-463-2000 and let him know you want him to DECLARE TRS-Care an EMERGENCY ITEM--NOW!

2.  Call the office of your state representative and your senator.  Find those numbers here.  Ask them to call on Gov. Abbott to declare TRS-Care an emergency NOW!

3.  Stay tuned for information about a statewide rally!

4.  Contact your local media and ask them to help us by telling the stories of public-education retirees across the state who are suffering and about the dramatic differences between TRS and ERS (Employees Retirement System of Texas, the retirement system for all non-public-ed state employees in Texas, including our legislators).

UNITE to convince Gov. Abbott that

#TRSCareisanemergency

NOTE:

Here are Rep. Canales' letters:

Sen. Menéndez' letter:

Chris Ardis retired in May of 2013 following a 29-year teaching career. She now helps companies with business communications and social media and works as a sales coordinator for Tony Roma's and Macaroni Grill. Chris can be reached at cardis1022@aol.com. (Photo by Linda Blackwell, McAllen)

FIRST CALL TO ACTION FOR THE 2019 LEGISLATIVE SESSION

CALL WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16!!

            We are now a week into the 2019 Legislative Session.  Troy Reynolds, founder of Texans for Public Education, has put an alert out for our first CALL TO ACTION!  (Look for one from me next week on TRS-Care and our pensions!)

            Before sharing Troy’s CALL TO ACTION, if you have not joined Texans for Public Education, please do so.  Here is the link to their FB page, and here is the link to their website.

            IT IS CRITICAL THAT WE ALL DO THIS WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, BETWEEN THE HOURS OF 8 A.M. AND 5 P.M.!!!!!

Here are the instructions from Troy:

Okay, it’s time for a little civil disobedience. PLEASE NOTE THAT I (Troy) HAVE TWEAKED THE SCRIPT DUE TO SOME LATE-BREAKING INFORMATION. We are going to stage our first “phone meltdown” of the session. For those who are not familiar with what this practice is, we are going to ALL call our house representative, our state senator, the Lt. Gov, and the Gov office with a scripted message. We will hinder their office operations with an outpouring of feedback on a single issue. Some rules before we get to the how/when/what to read:

1. Stay on the script. Do not ad lib. You are being recorded.

2. Be nice. No matter what they do…and the staffers do tend to get frustrated after a while…we must stay on the high road. There is no need to be uncivil.

3. Many will ask for your address. That’s just to make sure you’re actually a constituent.

4. Do not use school time. You can do this on a scheduled break like your lunch, but do not use contract time for this.

5. By the same token, use your personal phone. Do not use a school phone.

6. Know this: if an office gets six calls on the same topic, they assign a staffer to do research on the topic. You’re going to be affecting more than that day’s work. 😉

So, here’s how you do it:

1. Write down the phone numbers for the following people:

a. Your State House Representative

b. Your State Senator

If you don’t know the name or number of your representative and your senator, get them here.

c. Dan Patrick

i. Office: (512) 463-0001

ii. Message Line: (512) 463-5342

d. Greg Abbott (512) 463-2000

2. On Wednesday, January 16, between the hours of 8 am and 5 pm, call the office. Tell them that you are a constituent and would like your opinion on teacher merit pay to be registered. Answer any questions they have about address, etc. Once they ask for your position, tell them the following statement:

“My name is ______, and I am a member of Texans for Public Education. I just wanted Rep./Senator/Lt. Governor/Governor  ________ to know that I am thankful that the legislature seems serious about addressing teacher pay. Anything that makes our profession more attractive to college graduates is appreciated. However, I also want to communicate that I would consider any vote for any kind of merit pay system or outcomes-based funding to be an unfriendly act toward public education which could harm the students and educators it intends to help.”

3. Call each office and do the same. Feel free to elaborate a little on why you feel this way if so prompted. If they would like for you to come in and speak to them, I encourage you to do so.

4. Come back to this thread (Troy’s thread on the Texans for Public Education Facebook page) and let folks know when you have completed this. It’s the only way for us to get a count, and it’s good for morale.

That’s it. It’s time for you to pick up the fight. We cannot wait for someone else to stand up. Either we stand up for ourselves, or we allow our voices to be ignored, and we get walked on. You must put your fear aside and get the job done. If the line is busy, that’s a good thing. Keep trying. If it’s voice mail, leave a message. (Some of them will set their phones on voice mail after a while. They will still count messages.) Encourage others to do this. Heck, print out this post and pass it around (not on school time.) We literally need THOUSANDS of you to do this for it to work. Sic ‘em

            If you want to read more about merit pay (part of outcomes-based funding) before you call, check this out.
            Here are our state representatives, and here are our senators.

            TOMORROW IS OUR FIRST CALL TO ACTION for this legislative session.  

            TOMORROW IS OUR FIRST CALL TO ACTION for this legislative session. Help make sure...