Turning up the Heat

by Elizabeth Ahlgren, NEA Director District 10, Morse High

Influencing legislation is 10% access and 90% heat. The NEA and CTA staffs who work in Washington and Sacramento along with the NEA board members represent the access. I visit the capitol four times a year when I go to Washington. I can speak directly with our members of Congress and/or their staff members in order to discuss the issues that affect education and children. You represent the heat. When you call, e-mail or write your member of Congress or the California legislature, you apply the heat. Be prepared because we may need to turn up the heat this spring.

The president's budget proposal makes serious cuts to education programs such as Head Start, Perkins funding, and Drug Free Schools. It under funds both Title One and IDEA. With the state's budget deficit getting larger every day, we need the federal government to step up and fulfill their responsibility to our students.

ESEA doesn't look like it will be changed in the House of Representatives this spring but the Senate is expected to bring forward ESEA legislation sometime this month or next. Ted Kennedy chairs the Senate's Education Committee and the original expectation was to see something come out from his office in March. As the presidential campaign trail heats up, it may slow down the release of the draft. We are not expecting to see the draft very long before it gets to the committee.

The social security offset repeal may see some action this year. Both the Senate and the House have held subcommittee hearings on the legislation and we have 339 cosponsors in the House and 36 in the Senate. The Senate side required 60 votes for passage so we have more work to do there although both California Sen- ators have signed on as co-sponsors.  The latest projection for the cost of fully repealing the offsets is $82 billion dollars and this needs to come from social security dollars. Knowing that the cost is a hurdle in getting additional support, the NEA is looking at an incremental repeal of the offsets. I haven't seen any specifics about what this will look like but you should expect something during 2008. You need to know that Senator Clinton has gone on record saying she will sign the bill to repeal the offsets if she becomes president.

The Congressional budget office gets more calls and mail on the repeal of social security offsets that any other issue. That's what's turning up the heat is about and we may be asking you to turn up the heat on ESEA or the social security offsets this spring. I know we will be asking you to turn up the heat on the state budget so warm up those fingers and get ready to call, email or write.

- Elizabeth Ahlgren