Legislative Action Center
In Support of Common Issues and Public Education
HIGHLIGHTS
- NEA urges Representatives to vote yes on pay equity
Two important bills - the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act - could be up for a vote in the House this week
- NEA supports the Social Security Fairness Act
On January 6, NEA sent a letter to Reps. Berman and McKeon thanking them for reintroducing legislation that would repeal GPO and WEP offsets. - Tell Congress To Help Struggling Families And States Facing Budget Crises
Contact members of Congress to help low- and moderate-income families and to help states avoid deep cuts in education and health care. - Education Funding Charts
What's your state's share of the federal education budget?
NEA Priority Areas - 111th Congress
21st Century Skills - Ensuring that public schools have the resources necessary to prepare students to succeed in work, school, and life. 21st Century skills include
- Core subjects, with 21st century content such as global awareness; financial, economic, business and entrepreneurial literacy; civic literacy; and health and wellness awareness;
- Learning and thinking skills such as critical thinking and problem solving, communications, creativity and innovation, collaboration, contextual learning and information and media literacy;
- Information and communications technology literacy;
- Life skills such as leadership, ethics, accountability, adaptability, personal productivity, personal responsibility, people skills, self-direction, and social responsibility.
Economic Relief/Stimulus Package - Providing relief to states facing budget deficits, including by temporarily increasing the Federal Medicaid match, in order to help stave off devastating cuts to education and other priorities. Also helping families struggling to make ends meet, including by extending unemployment benefits and expanding nutrition assistance.
Education Funding/Appropriations- Pushing for increases in funding for key education programs to ensure that all students, educators, and schools have the resources necessary to succeed. Advocacy will be necessary in finalizing appropriations for the current (FY09) fiscal year, as well as in development of budgets and appropriations bills for fiscal years 2010 and 2011.
ESEA Reauthorization/Education Transformation - Ensuring passage of ESEA reauthorization legislation that reflects NEA's Transforming America's Public Schools Initiative, including:
- Supporting the teaching profession as a desired and complex field of study and practice;
- Guaranteeing sustained funding for Title I and IDEA for special needs populations;
- Ensuring equal access to educational services and supports;
- Supporting state-led public school transformation through authentic accountability that is publicly transparent;
- Establishing high-quality educational research and development as essential to educational improvement;
- Supporting innovation and best practices to accelerate state-based improvement efforts and improve student learning based on proven teaching strategies and programs grounded in sound teaching and learning research.
Health Care Reform- Promoting the Health Care for America Now! coalition principles for health care reform, which call for reform rooted in and built on our current health care system, but guaranteeing quality, affordable health care for everyone in America. Specifically, the principles support a choice of a private insurance plan, including keeping one's current insurance or choosing a public insurance plan; government setting and enforcing rules so coverage will actually be there when needed; assistance with purchasing coverage based upon a family's ability to pay; and support to small businesses to help them insure their workers.
Social Security Offsets (GPO/WEP)- Securing passage of incremental steps toward full repeal of the Government Pension Offset and Windfall Elimination Provision, which unfairly cut or eliminate Social Security benefits for many public employees.
RELATED ITEMS
Make your voice heard! Become a cyber-lobbyist and subscribe to our weekly e-mail newsletterRead Great Public Schools for Every Child by 2020, NEA's proposal to revitalize the partnership between federal, state, and local leaders.
