15-B Insider -- January 2002

I attended a Legislative Update meeting on January 11^th at the MOISD. There were several area administrators at this meeting as well. What I heard was not a good economic forecast. I asked the question of one of our representatives: "Have you considered lowering the MPSERS retirement rate as an alternative to not increasing the per pupil funding level?" (The State did this very thing in 1998-99.) The response was not good and was one that shows the state of mind that may exist with some of our representatives. My point to you is that these are our representatives and, perhaps, they need to hear from us. Back to the Representative – his response was: "Did you know that about 5% of this 12.17% is spent on the retirement health insurance, and that could change?" Did you know that we have bus drivers that drive for five years and qualify for the same level of insurance funding that a 30-year teacher receives?" (Note: That is really not a true statement because it takes most new drivers more than one year to earn one year of service credit, and it would only work if the bus driver was at least 60.) He continued saying: "I will support fixing the system so that it is graduated based on the years of service. In fact, I would support the change being implemented for current school employees."

That graduated proposal, actually referred to as the Graded Subsidy Plan, would put health insurance out of reach for most ESP members. A policy for themselves and their spouse currently costs $891.50 per month. Using that same figure, ten years of service credit would have the State paying 30% ($267.45) with the retiree paying 70% ($624.05) of the premium per month, which is probably more than he/she would receive in retirement income. That graduated proposal would not give the employee credit toward the insurance for years of service credit purchased, but only for the years worked. I once worked with one of our members who was 54 years old; had worked for the school district for 25 years; and she had 19 years of MPSERS service credit. Quiz Question: How old would she be in order to receive the maximum MPSERS contribution, which comes with 30 years of service? The irony is that the answer is: The same age that she converts from MPSERS to Medicare for health care! Political Action - What's that? Cash for Kids? - What's that? Keep your eye on Capitol Comments, which should be posted weekly at your work site, and help us out by becoming involved. (Final Note: The above quotes are not word for word, but the substance is accurate.)

"ACCOUNTABILITY IS IN VOGUE, MONEY IS NOT"

The above quote is an excerpt from a column written by Kevin Merida, who is a member of the Washington Post Writers Group. I know most of the time teachers are doing the job they like the most - teaching. It's all the committee meetings before and after school and the stream of tests their students must take to document that proper learning is taking place that seem to kill some of the positive karma. President Bush just got his Education Package through Congress, and it won't be long before every third grader can read. The Education Package will increase the federal contribution to approximately 7%. To add to this accountability, our State Department of Education recently announced its plan for the accreditation of school districts in Michigan. Schools will be graded (A, B, C, etc.) by a combination of the MEAP scores, student attendance, student dropout rate, extended learning opportunities, and parental involvement. However, there are some economic realities in our area that will create a challenge which may not exist in East Grand Rapids or Grosse Pointe. Most of our children's parents in this area must both work to provide for their family. Even with two people working, many of these families will still qualify as low-income families. When compared to East Grand Rapids or Grosse Pointe, I wouldn't be surprised if we have a higher percentage of students with special needs and a higher percentage of students who come from one-parent homes. The bar has been raised, and the bottom-line is that we have to work harder and, hopefully, smarter.

BARGAINING WORKSHOP CANCELLED

We have six contracts to be negotiated in 15-B this year. I'm not sure there are many of us that actually enjoy meeting with the Employer about our wages, hours, terms and conditions of employment. There just aren't too many magnanimous Employers in our midst. Bargaining is hard work, and it doesn't always end up with the results that we are seeking. It is useful to get prepared, and a bargaining workshop helps local teams do that.

Right now, with the exception of Manton, districts in 15-B are financially flush. Whining about the possibility of their fund equity going down because of the current economy or the student enrollment projections should fall on deaf ears. Did anyone receive 8.33% wage improvement this year? That's how much the per-pupil funding amount went up this year. Things just aren't as dire as Board teams will most likely try to present them. Some Boards may propose a freeze next year because the per-pupil funding amount may be frozen at this year's level. District priorities might be to put several hundred thousand dollars aside for roof repairs, or, perhaps, build onto the school without a bond issue. Employee bargaining teams need to make the case that their wages, hours, terms and conditions of employment should also be Board priorities. For example: We have several area contracts with caps on the health insurance premium, and those caps should be removed. We disappointedly cancelled our bargaining workshop due to a lack of expressed interest.

Have you visited our award-winning website lately? Webmaster Jim Neff is continually adding web links that may be useful, informative, or both for you. How about the possibility of connecting with online mentors; resource sharing for educators; or perhaps you are interested in online training? If that doesn't work, how about linking to the Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice and reviewing what this Center found when it reviewed 14 studies conducted by the Mackinac Center. For your information, the members and staff in the Northern Zone of MEA helped create this Great Lakes Center, and it’s nice to see what we have accomplished. This website is very useful for teachers, and receives several thousand visits each month. Our website also has an ESP Resource link, and Jim Neff is very willing to add more links for ESP members that are useful, informative or both. When you find a site that you find very useful for your work, please let Jim or our office know. It's very easy to contact Jim from the website.

If you listen to 103.5 on your FM dial during the months of January through March, you may hear some promos with an educational message that may end with something like: "This message was paid for by the Michigan Education Association Employees in the Mesick Consolidated Schools." Every district in 15-B has a message.

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