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Julie's Political Corner
By Julie Meyer-Houston - Sonoma State - CCTC Liaison

Call your assemblyperson and/or senator! These bills affect YOU!

Please make sure that you call your senator and/or assembly person on May 1, 2002 to tell them to repeal the Social Security offset. By doing so, you will be participating in "Social Security Lobby Day." As some of you may know, the Social Security Offset especially hurts 2nd and/or 3rd career choosers who have decided they want to join the professional field of teaching. For example, if you contributed to Social Security before entering the public school system and its retirement system, then you may lose almost 2/3 of your social security benefits because of your joining the public school/retirement system. This will continue to happen if YOU do NOT tell your congress person that you want this Social Security offset repealed!!! To read more about the negative affects of this offset, go to the website: California Educator article.

Also, California future teachers, please inform your congress persons that you want them to support AB 2160 (Goldberg, et al), which allows teachers the opportunity to participate in the process of choosing their curriculum and textbooks. Imagine if college professors were not allowed to determine how their classes should be taught, and which textbooks their students should be required to read. Itís actually unthinkable. Therefore, elementary, middle, and high school teachers should also be allowed to determine what is best for their students, and how to teach it.

Along the same thinking, please write your California congress people to tell them to support SB 1968, which provides for due process rights for probationary teachers in California. Currently, California is one of four states that do NOT have due process rights for their new/probationary teachers. You may also contact the Student CTA office for more information on how these bills impact you!

Please participate in the efforts to promote the common good for our free, democratic society, and for the betterment of the educational environment for teachers and students!

Want to know what else is going to affect YOU?

Learn more about CTA's efforts to make political and legislative gains for students, teachers, and public education by clicking onto the "CTA Politics and Legislation".  It has many links to help make contacting your congress person easy. Other links include:

• Alert to find out about breaking events and how you can help CTA win additional victories for you.

• Sponsored/Key Legislation to find out the status of the Association's ambitious legislative program and top bills CTA is either backing or opposing.

• Contact Your Lawmakers for a pathway that will let you effortlessly e-mail or fax your legislators and the governor on education-related issues.

• Issues to review stories filed in recent months and other briefing papers to keep you on top of current deliberations.

• State Council Bills for a comprehensive list of the hundreds of measures upon which CTA's policy-making body - the State Council of Education - has adopted positions.

• PAL/Politics and Legislation publication for the most recent issue of the award-winning electronic weekly published by CTA's Legislative Relations Department.