summer_18

GOVERNING

SUMMER 2018 CEA ADVISOR 5

CONNECTICUT EDUCATORS REENERGIZED BY WORK AT NEA REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY, READY TO FACE NEW CHALLENGES

The more than 100 CEA delegates to the 97th NEA Representative Assembly (RA) in Minneapolis this July 2-5 came home reenergized and ready to harness the power of the growing Red for Ed movement to meet new challenges to public education head on. “We joined more than 6,000 delegates from across the nation as we recognized the courage and fortitude of our colleagues in the Red for Ed movement,” said CEA President Jeff Leake. “Our delegates are ready to lead our CEA members as we stand up for our students, our members, and our profession. We are energized and ready for action.” Teachers spent the majority of their time at the Minneapolis Convention Center debating and adopting new policy statements, resolutions, amendments to existing policies, and more than 100 new business items. Taken together, these create a detailed NEA education policy blueprint for the upcoming year. In support of teachers taking part in the Red for Ed movement who might need to strike to ensure a positive future for their students and public schools, one of the new business items delegates approved establishes a voluntary membership donation of at least three dollars. The voluntary donations would help “to establish a fund to support statewide work actions and/or strikes.” This year’s NEA RA took place just days after the Supreme Court announced its decision in Janus v. AFSCME . The implications of that decision, which sides with corporate interests over working people, were clearly on delegates’ minds.

Showing their union pride at the NEA RA are Marilyn DellaRocco, CES; John Czepiel, Avon; CEA Secretary Stephanie Wanzer; CEA Vice President Tom Nicholas; CEA President Jeff Leake; Katy Gale, Darien; Cate Lunnie, CES; and Doreen Lawson, Waterbury.

Ana Batista, Bridgeport, and Tiffany Ladson-Lang, Bridgeport.

In her keynote address, NEA President Lily Eskelsen García told educators, “These are dark days, but Martin Luther King reminded us, ‘…only when it’s dark enough can you see the stars.’ And we have seen true stars align. We have seen the people march and speak up and refuse to be silent and refuse to pretend; we have seen the resistance rise.” Eskelsen García yielded the RA stage to a well-known student leader, David Hogg, a recent Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School graduate and advocate for commonsense gun laws and school safety. “We have been speaking up, mobilizing, and standing strong because our friends and family mean the world to us,” Hogg told the

delegates. “We are young, and that means we don’t have to accept the status quo. And we never will. We intend to close the gap between the world as it is and what it should be.” 2018 National Teacher of the Year Mandy Manning, a Washington educator, is doing her part to close that gap. Delegates honored her for her unwavering commitment to immigrant and refugee students. “In the past month, we have seen children ripped away from their families, families detained indefinitely as a tradeoff for keeping them together, the Supreme Court upholding the president’s xenophobic travel ban, and naturalized citizens with no assurance they’ll maintain their status. We live and educate in a time when not all students feel wanted, welcomed, loved enough, or that they matter,” said Manning, who teaches at Joel E. Ferris High School in Spokane. While in Minneapolis, Leake and other Connecticut educators showed their support for immigrant students by joining in a march protesting federal immigration policy—part of a wave of over 700 marches that took place across the country.

Standing up for students and the teaching profession is central to what it means to be a teacher, but in some places around the world, it can land you in prison. That’s what happened to Jalila Al-Salman, a Bahraini teacher and vice president of the Bahrain Teachers’ Association who helped to organize teacher strikes in support of pro-democracy protests during the international Arab Spring. Al-Salman was a guest of the CEA delegation to the NEA RA and shared her story with Connecticut teachers.

CEA Student Program Members Honored

For the fourth consecutive year, the Quinnipiac chapter of the CEA Student Program won the Outstanding Chapter Award at the NEA-Student Leadership Conference, which precedes the NEA RA. The Quinnipiac students beat out a number of university groups from across the country. “The Quinnipiac Future Teachers Organization (QFTO) does a great job engaging their members,” says CEA Educational Issues Specialist Michele Ridolfi O’Neill, who serves as the state student organizer. “Chapter leaders provide a variety of activities and experiences for members in a number of different areas, focusing on more than just teacher prep. This award is a great recognition for all their hard work.” Pictured are members of the 2018-19 QFTO Executive Board: Michael Thorp, Jessica Coughlin, Kimberly Day, Molly Mastrianni, and Elissabeth Daniele. Absent from the photo is Joanna Sayed.

Proudly wearing their Red For Ed t-shirts are Jenny Natale, Montville; Nicola Abel, Killingly; Rae Baczek, Greenwich; and Faith Sweeney, Westport.