Barb VanDoorn of Lake Holcombe is winner of a major national Award for Teaching Excellence

July 17, 2017

Lake Holcombe school counselor Barb VanDoorn is the winner of a prestigious California Casualty Award for Teaching Excellence, the NEA Foundation announced Monday. She will receive the award at the NEA Foundation’s Salute to Excellence in Education Gala next February in Washington, D.C. “Barb explains it is the job of educators to identify the strengths and needs of each student, and believes the counselor’s role is to take it one step further — advocating for each student in the classroom, the community, and in realizing each student’s future goals,” said WEAC President Ron Martin, who nominated her for the national award.

Legislative Update – July 17

July 17, 2017

Senate Republicans announced they will release their own budget proposal Tuesday, something Capitol insiders have been speculating about for some time. The state budget is currently two weeks overdue. According to statehouse insider WisPolitics, a spokeswoman for Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said the document was still being drafted by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau.

NEA video honors Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin

July 17, 2017

A new NEA video pays tribute to Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin, winner of this year’s Mary Hatwood Futrell Award at the annual NEA Convention. “There is no greater champion of women’s rights, worker rights and the middle class,” it says. At the end of the tribute video, WEAC President Ron Martin accepts the award on Baldwin’s behalf because she could not attend the ceremony because of her duties in the U.S. Senate. Baldwin was nominated for the award by the WEAC Human and Civil Rights Committee.

Federal Health Care Action Alert!

July 14, 2017

The revised Senate health care bill converts Medicaid to a system of capped payments to states and pegs future adjustments to the consumer price index instead of medical care costs – which generally rise faster. The result? It is estimated federal Medicaid outlays will decrease 26 percent by 2026. This endangers all students, especially the most vulnerable children, and the public schools that serve them. Contact your senators now!

Why millennials should lead the next labor movement

July 14, 2017

Millennials can’t stand by and watch as the unions continue to decline and the middle class disappears, Janesville native Kashana Cauley writes in a New York Times article. “People like me, who have mental museums filled with memories of the stability that came with our parents’ union jobs, could be the perfect leaders of the next labor union renaissance,” she writes.