A reminder that our Board of Ed Chairman, Mark Overmyer-Velazquez has organized a rally for Immigrant and Refugee Rights for tomorrow at 4:30 on the Town Hall steps.

Also, the CEA Political Action Committee had a joint meeting last night with the CEA Legislative Commission and we called teachers by phone to get recruits for their new TAG Team.  (Teacher Advocacy Grassroots) Team.  This team would simply act as an action team standing ready to contact their legislators at key points during the upcoming legislative session.  This would not entail meetings.  Just a willingness to contact lawmakers when CEA becomes aware that a bill is up for a vote or some other immediate grassroots action is necessary.  If you would be willing to be on this group, please contact Gus Melita at CEA at gusm@cea.org.

Finally, several of you have asked whether NEA or CEA has a strategy with regard to the Betsy De Vos nomination.  I don’t have a good answer for that yet.  No doubt the fact that all of the democrats are voting against her is a sign that strong lobbying is happening.  But now that she has passed the committee, the only way to stop her confirmation is by getting several Republicans to vote NO on the Senate floor.  Two Republican Senators have already had the courage to say that they are not convinced.  They are Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski and Maine Senator Susan Collins.  But they are not definite NO’s.

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It would not be a waste of your time to contact them and encourage them to follow their conscience and stick to their guns.  It would also be worthwhile to reach out to any other moderate republicans in the Senate.

Keep this in mind though…if De Vos is not confirmed, Trump will just pick someone else.

Also…remember that our political activism needs to take place outside of the school day.  Please do not send any mass emails to your entire school, and avoid classroom conversations that would make any students feel unwelcome.

Thanks