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The Power of “WE”

By Blake West, President, Kansas National Education Association

August is a time when KNEA local associations welcome returning and new staff members to the bright vision of a new school year.

You’ll hear about the benefits of membership at this time of year – good information and a reminder, that I often forget, to take advantage of some great programs.

But thanks to the confluence of critical issues facing public education, the REAL reason for being a part of the 25,000 KNEA members (and 3.2 million NEA members nationwide) has probably never been clearer.  It can be summed up in one word:  WE.

Here’s how important we are:

Beginning two years ago, NEA conducted extensive research to identify specific changes needed in the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act.  When we first presented these ideas to the new democratic leadership in the House and Senate Education Committees in January, they were not encouraging.  But now, bipartisan efforts to fix and fund NCLB are finding overwhelmingly positive response.  What happened?

KNEA and NEA began a massive campaign to get stories from our classrooms and schools to our congressional team in D.C.  In Kansas we worked with Congresspersons Moore, Boyda and Moran to cosponsor legislation for full funding AND for more practical systems of accountability and testing. 

We Make a Difference

Just a couple of years ago, the Kansas Legislature was in the midst of a power struggle with the Kansas Supreme Court over demands for increased funding for K-12 education.  As they went into special session, a significant increase in funding seemed very unlikely… until KNEA generated a higher number of lobbying contacts from our members over a two-day period than we had ever achieved before.  We put on the pressure and a three year funding plan was the ultimate result.

We Make a Difference

As schools received additional funding, what have Kansas districts done with those resources? 

Over the last three years, Kansas  teacher salaries have increased at a faster rate than in any other state in the nation!   Increased hiring has helped bring class sizes down in many schools around the state. 

How did this happen?   Over the last three years KNEA has helped train bargaining teams across the state and worked to help locals build collaborative relationships with districts. 

We also initiated a project with Kansas Association of School Administrators to facilitate these new positive relationships – the result is that many districts achieved their best improvements in salaries, health coverage and working conditions in recent memory. 

Frankly, those districts with the highest percentage of KNEA membership AND the most active members are the places where we have seen our best results.

We Make a Difference

In 2006, our members distributed “invitations” for educators to participate in a statewide assessment of teacher working conditions.  Together, we achieved the highest participation of any state before our effort – 22,000 educators confirmed the critical need to address time demands on teachers and the essential role of positive, empowering school leadership.  We identified links between teacher working conditions and student learning.  Finally, the data told us that retaining professionals in our schools depends heavily on creating a professional working environment.

Since then KNEA has held workshops for schools, districts, administrator groups, legislators, the Kansas State Board of Education, school of education faculty and students.   As a result many schools and districts are changing organizational practices and trying to make the professional conditions better for teachers, counselors, school psychologists, library media specialists, administrators, etc.  Teacher working conditions ARE student learning conditions and we are working to improve both.

We Make a Difference

Speaking of 2006, KNEA recommended numerous candidates from both political parties in the August primaries and November general elections.  We only asked candidates questions about their support for public education.  

Thanks to the highest level of activism at the local level in history, we achieved stunning successes on election day.  The result of our influence could be seen almost immediately in the 2007 legislative session.  Money was set aside to complete the second and third years of the three-year school finance plan – an unprecedented move as school funding always seems to be the last thing the Legislature gets around to addressing!

We Make a Difference

Numerous successful initiatives and projects are also in place locally in schools and districts across Kansas.  Examples are sited throughout this publication. See a short list in the next column on page 3.

Past successes are just the beginning, though. This is only a partial list of the work before us.   Our success hinges on the strength of “WE.” 

We need every possible potential member to join our Association. 

We need each member to become more active: send an e-mail to a legislator, request/attend a KNEA workshop in your school, use KNEA’s support for new teachers, join a virtual Advisory Council, be a mentor, ask a colleague to join, etc.

There is something for each of us to do.

As we work together, I trust and hope that each of you has a great school year!

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