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Take the Pledge: Safe Learning Environments for Every Student

Schools should be havens. But right now, many of our students are scared, anxious, and feeling threatened. We are hearing from students and educators around the country who are encountering hostile, hateful environments in their schools and communities, with fake deportation notices being handed out and swastikas drawn in bathrooms. We are being flooded with reports of hate speech and images directed at students in our schools. Nooses. Racist graffiti. Threats to our LGBTQ students. Headscarves being torn off. Girls being assaulted. Children are hearing that they are not welcome

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NEA President: Every Child has the Right to Feel Safe, Welcomed and Valued

Educators welcome groundbreaking civil rights protections for transgender students in schools WASHINGTON—Today, the National Education Association, the nation’s largest professional association representing three million educators, enthusiastically welcomed the Obama administration’s guidance for school districts to help ensure the civil rights of transgender students. The following statement can be attributed to NEA President Lily Eskelsen García: “Every student matters, and every child has the right to feel safe, welcomed, and valued in our schools. As educators, we are responsible for our students’ education and safety, including transgender students. We know that

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NEA-NH Backs HB 634

This morning, NEA New Hampshire announced its support of HB 634. “NEA New Hampshire is proud to support HB 634, a bill to close tax loopholes to help open opportunity for all,” said Scott McGilvray, NEA-NH President.  “If we are serious about education and economic growth, then we can no longer afford revenue sapping tax loopholes, including the capital gains loophole. It is time to close these loopholes, provide some tax relief to the middle class and invest in our future.  Together, we can expand opportunity for all, not just

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NEA-NH President Testifies on Three Bills

NEA New Hampshire Scott McGilvray testified on three bills before House Committees this morning, HB 253, HB 347 and HB 324. HB 253 would require all new public charter school applications to provide an educational mission statement that includes details of the specific purpose and goals of the school. The educational mission statement shall “count for not less than 25 percent in the criteria for evaluating a chartered public school application. The mission statement shall make a clear and documented case that the proposed school will meet a need not currently

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NEA President’s Letter to Secretary Duncan

NEA President Lily Eskelsen-Garcia sent a letter to Secretary Duncan this morning outlining NEA’s ask for an opportunity dashboard within ESEA.  This is a huge priority for NEA for the next reauthorization of ESEA.  “When half of American children are now living in low-income families, I believe we have more than just the fierce urgency of now to act. I believe we have a crisis of opportunity to solve,” the letter says.   January 26, 2015 The Honorable Arne Duncan Secretary of Education 400 Maryland Avenue SW LBJ Education Building, 7W311 Washington DC 20202 Dear Mr. Secretary: As the United States Supreme Court said in 1954 in Brown v. Board of Education—and your department’s Office of Civil Rights affirmed just four months ago in a Dear Colleague letter— education is

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Classroom Expense Deduction (REPAY) Passes House

WASHINGTON, DC—Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter (NH-01) is pleased to announce that the Classroom Expense Deduction was included in a bipartisan package that passed the House today by a vote of 378-46. “I am very happy that when teachers file their taxes next year, they’ll have this modest recognition of the financial sacrifices they make for our kids,” said Shea-Porter. Last October, Shea-Porter introduced H.R.3318, the Reimburse Educators who Pay for Academic Year (REPAY) Supplies Act, and built an active coalition of 68 bipartisan cosponsors. Throughout 2014, she led bipartisan letters and advocacy efforts, speaking with colleagues on both sides of the aisle about the importance of extending this deduction. Shea-Porter began her efforts in response to a letter she received from Margaret Morse-Barry, an educator from Derry, New Hampshire, who urged

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