The Nebraska State Education Association March 2014
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The Voice The Nebraska State Education Association March 2014 MAY 2017 | THE VOICE | PAGE 1 NSEA at 150 True or False? ...That Teachers Can be Powerful if They will Organize. Lessons of WWII-Era n That NSEA de- feated LB38 in 1941, Association Meeting Ring which saved $90,000 True Yet Today yearly for the teachers’ salary fund? This is one of a series on NSEA’s his- n We have a ten- tory as the Association celebrates 150 ure law for Omaha years. and Lincoln and plan to extend it further at Sometime during the 1943-44 school the next Legislature? year, Ruth Ann Barry attended a county- n That Nebraska wide association meeting in Saunders ranks 40th in average County. salary per teacher? Among Barry’s teaching papers do- n In 1939 our nated to NSEA by her daughter, Ann Bal- average salary was lard, was a ‘True or False’ sheet on As- $813 per teacher, sociation facts. Along the margins, Barry while the national penciled in notes indicating that ‘Mead is average was $1,374? here!’ and ‘I don’t see Malmo’ – referring n That teachers to members from the some of the county’s can be powerful if other community schools. A handwritten they will organize, note on the back of the sheet indicates the support their asso- paper came from “a teachers’ meeting in ciations and become Wahoo. Marjorie, Loretta, Lucille, and properly informed I went with Stuart. Then we stopped at on school matters. Thompson’s for coffee and rolls.” “True” is the cor- But the remarkable aspect of the sheet rect answer for each comes in the facts presented on the typed question, and the fi- sheet. The first line asks ‘Is it true or nal item, especially those false?’ and then presents 27 statements, remains true today! years, respectively. including these: Ballard also offered three teaching con- n That we now have a contractual re- tracts signed by her mother, for the 1944- But the final lesson remains now, as it lations law passed at the last legislature 45; 1946-47 and 1947-48 school years. Her was then, that teachers can be powerful if and we hope to extend it to rural schools? salary was $1,100, $1,575 and $1,800 in they will organize… NSEA has ended its contract with the U.S. The NSEA Board of Directors decided to NSEA Ends Contract Access Development Co. that, for nearly 20 end the contract due to cost issues. years has provided members with discounts Access services will cease on Aug. 31. with Access at merchants and retail locations across the Watch future issues of The Voice for details. A new leadership team for the coming Association year was elected at NSEA’s Delegate Cover: Assembly in April. Clockwise from bottom right are President Jenni Benson, Lincoln; Vice President Paul Schulte, Millard; NEA Director Tracey Hartman-Bradley, Omaha; and NEA Director Linda Freye, Lincoln. For the full story on Delegate Assembly, turn to page Page 7 Executive Director Maddie Fennell tober, November, February, April and August. Published Assoc. Executive Director Neal Clayburn online in December, January, March and May. Director of Public Affairs Karen Kilgarin Assistant Comm. Director Al Koontz Payment of annual NSEA dues entitles Nebraska educa- THE tors to receive The Voice. Cost of producing 10 issues of NSEA EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE The Voice each year is $3.41 per member. President Nancy Fulton, Wilber-Clatonia VOICE Vice President Jenni Benson, Lincoln Nebraska State Education Association Advertising rates available on request. Appearance of an NEA Director John Heineman, Lincoln advertisement in The Voice does not imply NSEA endorse- 605 S. 14th Street NEA Director Tracy Hartman-Bradley, Omaha Lincoln, NE 68508-2742 · www.nsea.org ment of the product advertised or views expressed. (402) 475-7611 · (800) 742-0047 Official publication of the Nebraska State Education As- Volume 70, No. 9 sociation, 605 South 14th Street, Lincoln, NE 68508-2742. Cited for excellence each year by ISSN Number: 1085-0783 Periodical postage paid at Lincoln, NE, and additional the State Education Editors, including USPS Number: 000-369 mailing offices. Postmaster: send address changes to The these past awards: Best Magazine, Voice, NSEA, 605 S. 14th Street, Lincoln, NE 68508-2742. Best News Story, Best Feature Story, Best Photography and Best Editorial Design. Great Public Schools For Every Child Published and mailed 6 times yearly in September, Oc- PAGE 2 | THE VOICE | MAY 2017 The President Challenge the Future As I contemplated writing my final article as teacher. In the 40 years since, I’ve had no regrets. your president, I reflected briefly on how swiftly I remember my first day of my first year as viv- these six years have slipped by. idly as I recall my last day in the classroom. I truly appreciate the confidence you have ex- pressed in me and the dedication you have for Never Rest our Association and for our students. My personal history in the education field has I am proud that NSEA members have worked shaped me as a teacher, just as history and heri- for 150 years to promote education, our profession tage has shaped today’s NSEA. and, as was stated in the Association’s first consti- In 1937, the continuing contract law was tution, to elevate “the profession of teaching and passed, requiring boards of education to vote to promoting the interests of schools in Nebraska.” dismiss a teacher before April 15 or the teacher’s Other than becoming more student-centered, contract would automatically renew. The first our mission has not changed. Take a minute to due process law was passed in 1943, allowing imagine teaching in the late 19th and early 20th for a probationary period, although it took until NSEA President 1971 for it to apply to teachers outside of Lincoln Nancy Fulton centuries and the changes our country was expe- riencing. One room schoolhouses were the norm an Omaha. in rural states like Nebraska and my home state The Nebraska Teacher Retirement System of Iowa. was initiated in 1945, the Court of Industrial Re- I started my education as a kindergartener in lations was created in 1947, a group health insur- “ the small, one room Liberty School, being one ance plan for teachers in 1959, and a collective Always of two kindergarteners in a school of about 15 bargaining law in 1967. Many of these rights are, remember that students in grades one through eight. Our lone frankly, taken for granted today. teacher, Mrs. Vander Linden taught us all. Those were major accomplishments, but we you have every While I didn’t have to walk five miles up hill should not ever accept the status quo. We must both ways to get to school, I did ride my bike dream for the future, work to maintain relevance, right — and the about two miles on gravel roads most days. Just and seek to influence public education in a posi- responsibility — imagine the autonomy that Mrs. Vander Linden tive manner for years to come. experienced as a teacher in that school. to be vocal in the School consolidation forced Liberty School to The Wisdom of Investment political process. close that year and I began 12 years of riding a That is made ever difficult by the rising level yellow school bus to and from school, sometimes of attacks on our union and our public schools. up to 90 minutes at a time. Our task is further hardened in that we are in competition with others for attention, respect ” No Regrets and a fair share of state tax revenues. We must I spent the next few years at a satellite school continue to encourage policymakers to see the with one teacher assigned to every two grades. I wisdom of investing in education. It’s an invest- loved listening to Mrs. Ruthvan teach the third ment that will see the greatest return on taxpayer graders, while pretending to do my second-grade money and will strengthen the entire economy. lessons. I had the opportunity to do a practicum That message, however, must come from with Mrs. Ruthvan during college and enjoyed you. There are powerful individuals and interest going back to my elementary school. groups that do not want us to have a voice – and I graduated with a class of 200 in the 1970’s – they are spending hundreds of millions of dollars when there was much change following the civil to silence us. Always remember that you have rights and anti-war movements of the 1960s. every right – and the responsibility – to be vocal Students were rebellious and challenging exist- in the political process. ing social norms. My graduating class was no Academy award winning actress Ruth Gor- different. Our motto was “We are the class of don said “Courage is a muscle, like a muscle, it 1972, bound to be true, and different.” We voted strengthens by use. The more you exercise it the to challenge the system, to bypass the traditional stronger it gets.” baccalaureate ceremony and graduate in street We will continue to celebrate our past. We clothes, not caps and gowns. You can imagine also must be committed exercising our courage the resistance we received from our school ad- and challenging the future. ministration and parents. My sincere thanks to each of you for your sup- I then attended college in the same conserva- port of children, education and NSEA – our pro- tive, culturally-rich community – and became a fessional Association. 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