VOUCHER BILL ON THE MOVE

Take action now to defend public education!

On January 20, the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee voted to release S-1872, a private school voucher bill known to supporters as the Opportunity Scholarship Act. This bill would divert up to $1 billion in tax revenue away from public schools and into the hands of private and parochial school operators.

Now comes word that the assembly version (A-2810) is scheduled to be heard on February 3 in the Commerce and Economic Development Committee. Should it pass that committee, only the Assembly Budget Committee stands between this bad bill and possible votes by the entire senate and assembly.

Time is short. NJEA members, and all those who support public education in New Jersey, must act now to stop this harmful legislation which drains much-needed resources from our public schools.

Please plan and carry out face-to-face actions against this legislation. We ask you do the following:

· Identify at least (5) people that are committed to contacting senators and
assembly members to voice their opposition to these bills before February
3rd.
· Identify at least (2) people that will visit the offices of Pamela Lampitt,
Angel Fuentes, Domenick DiCicco, Stephan Sweeney before February 3rd.
· Identify the date, time, and place you will meet with your members to
provide this voucher update before February 2nd.
· Identify other interactive organizing activities the local will implement
between Feb 1st and February 16th to get the message out into the
community, that they must notify legislators to oppose spending public
funds to private schools.

Associations may want to use breakfast meetings, legislative lunches, or any other creative activity. We recommend phone calls and written letters. It appears the emails are not getting read. When writing, urge legislators to call you to discuss the issue directly, or ask that they reply in writing.

This is a perfect organizing activity to do with parents, friends, family, and neighbors. Every member in every local must be involved to block the efforts of legislators. Go to njea.org for detailed information and up-to-date breaking issues.

Feel free to contact the UniServ office if you need talking points or any other assistance. Let us know what you are doing in your association.

YOUR CHANCE TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE

We just received word from our GR person, Fran Pfeffer, that Jim Beach is very interested in hearing how our members feel about the voucher bill. He indicated that he could be persuaded if he hears from enough NJEA members. Presidents are encouraged to utilize their local communications system and ask each of your members to contact Senator Beach. His contact information is below. We expect that the vote will be taken tomorrow.

856-429-1572
SenBeach@njleg.org

Tell him:

This voucher scheme would drain up to a billion tax dollars from the state at a time when we are cutting education funding and other critical programs.

• Please oppose S-1872/A-2810.
• No more bailouts. We need to focus our resources on highly accountable public schools, not send money to subsidize struggling private schools with no meaningful accountability.
• Public education is our future - we should be investing in it, not destroying it.

LEGISLATIVE ALERT!!!

Legislative Alert: The Opportunity Scholarship Act S-1872 (voucher bill) will be considered in committee on January 20. S-1872 is bad policy and must be OPPOSED. It would strip $360 million in tax dollars from public schools already facing deep budget cuts, and give that money to unaccountable private and religious schools, while doing nothing to improve New Jersey public schools in need of assitance and support.

TO DO: Contact Senator James Beach (D-6) 856-429-1572 to oppose S-1872 for the reasons above.
WHEN CONTACTING HIM: Encourage him to stand up for public schools.

Stay tuned to http://www.njea.org/ and your email for up to the minute information.

LAT Meeting CANCELED - Tuesday, Jan. 11

Due to the forecasted snow for Tuesday, January 11, 2011 into Wednesday, January 12, 2011, we have decided to cancel and reschedule the Legislative Action Team Meeting scheduled for Tuesday, January 11, 2011 at 4:30 p.m., at the CCCEA Office. We will notify you when a date has been chosen to reschedule. Please pass this information on to any member who was signed up to attend.

UNISERV ALERT!

The UniServ office is expecting a message to leaders/members which deals with urgent legislative issues which we believe will be addressed tomorrow by Sweeney and by the Governor on January 11th during the State of the Union address. Please monitor your email throughout the rest of the afternoon and evening since these initiatives have the potential to be damaging. The message will require members and leaders to contact their legislators immediately.

We'll keep you updated.