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Cash Cow

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• It's a Teacher Thing

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Home Stretch?

It’s taken two-and-a-half years, but a reauthorized Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is in sight. The Senate finally approved a bill reauthorizing the landmark 1975 act, which guarantees educational services to more than 6 million children with disabilities. That means it’s on to a House-Senate conference committee, which will reconcile the differences between the House and Senate proposals and draft legislation to present to the full Congress. (The House approved a bill reauthorizing IDEA last year.)

So how did we fare? On the upside, the bill protects services for transient students, implements a 15-state paperwork reduction project, provides for enhanced professional development, and calls for a study on how environmental factors impact children’s developmental disabilities.

But the Senate bill is not without flaws. Most notably, the Senate failed to pass an amendment to fully fund IDEA over the next six years. Currently, Congress covers roughly 20 percent of the costs to educate special needs students, just half of the 40 percent committed in the original law. That shortfall has cost local schools and taxpayers more than $300 million during the past 29 years. (To see the impact on your state, visit www.nea.org/lac/idea/fy05ideafunding.html.) Much work still remains on clarifying the definition of a “highly qualified” special education teacher as well.

Want more? Join NEA’s activist list by e-mailing pralabate@nea.org. You also can keep up with the

latest developments and contact your congressional reps by visiting www.nea.org/lac/idea.

Weighty Matters

The percentage of overweight children and teens in the United States has more than doubled during the past three decades, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. More than 15 percent of children ages 6–11 are overweight, compared with just 6.5 percent in the late 1970s. Meanwhile, 15.5 percent of 12- to 19-year-olds are overweight, compared with just 5 percent 30 years ago.

Get That Party Started!

How can you build grassroots power for the public schools and have a fabulous time doing it? Easy—You can host, or just attend, one of the thousands of house parties that NEA and several other pro-public education groups are organizing on September 22.

You’ll get to know fellow supporters of public education—educators, parents, and other good people from the neighborhood. Will there be good food, frolic, and fellowship? Definitely!

And by the end, your community will have a new group of activists ready and able to make themselves heard by local, state, and national leaders whenever they take up key issues around public education. Politicians do listen to people—when there are enough of them. 

The groups launching this effort with NEA include MoveOn.org, ACORN, and the Campaign for America’s Future. Go to www.greatpublicschools.org to find a house party in your community or how to host one (and the resources available to get your party jumpin’).

See you there!

Capitol Report

Good News for Retirees

New bills introduced in Congress mark an important first step toward the eventual full repeal of the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP).

The WEP unfairly shortchanges teachers and ESPs who have paid into Social Security during their careers but who then retire and receive a pension from a job not covered by Social Security.

The bipartisan “Public Servant Protection Act” (H.R. 4391/S. 2455) creates a new formula to calculate Social Security benefits for these individuals and increases benefits for many of them.

A House subcommittee held a hearing on the new bill in July. Terry Hickman, president of the Nevada State Education Associ-ation, told lawmakers, “I get calls every week from members devastated by the news that they will lose the Social Security benefits they had counted on for retirement.” The new bill, he added, was “a critical first step toward repeal of both offsets.”

A mark-up on the bill in the House is expected soon. (For the latest on GPO and WEP, go to www.nea.org/lac/socsec.

Have a great idea?

Send it by mail:

NEA Today
1201 16th St., N.W.
Washington, DC 20036

Send it by e-mail:
neatoday@nea.org.

Two Tickets, Please

Sherrell Ingram just wanted to go to the prom with her best friend, a female student from another school. But, when Ingram, a student at Lago Vista High School in Texas, tried to buy a couples ticket, she found out about a new rule: Your date must be the opposite sex. It wasn’t even a district rule, just the whim of the principal. That’s when her mom, Ginger White, decided to take a stand.

“You can’t teach your children to fight for what you believe in if you don’t do it yourself,” says White, who sought counsel with the People for the American Way Foundation. PFAWF co