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Links to current Advocacy Campaigns
may be found in the Legislative Action Center
AFT Michigan Health Care Alternative Considered
Pension and Retiree Health Care Threatened
Include Part-Time Community College Faculty & Administrators
Remove Community College From Retirement System
Expanded High School Curriculum Requirements Examined
At-Risk Teacher Loan Forgiveness Program
Return Unused Michigan Merit Award Money
Children of Veterans Tuition Act
Meningitis Information
AFT Michigan Health Care Alternative Considered
AFT Michigan and the International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 547, initially proposed significant improvements in the delivery of school employee health care before the Senate Appropriations Committee August 10, 2005. These improvements are outlined in a white paper, A Model for Saving Public School Health Care Dollars. Click on title to read this white paper available on our website.
Senators Johnson (R-Royal Oak) and Kuipers (R-Holland) introduced legislation on November 10, which laid out our new plan. The state will not mandate participation in the local insurance pools, but we are convinced that if school districts exercise the option through collective bargaining, there will be significant health care cost savings.
Participation in this plan would be open to all school districts, public school academies, intermediate school districts, community and junior colleges, and public universities.
Our plan created in this package of bills is call the "School Employees Health Benefit Act" and includes Senate Bills 895, 896, 897, and 898, all of which are currently on the Senate floor.
Our union created this legislation to provide education employees with quality health care while effectively addressing escalating health care costs. This proposal would save education employers and employees money spent on health care. This legislation would also maintain collective bargaining rights and the ability to negotiate health care coverage at the local level.
These bills are supported by the Michigan AFL-CIO, SEIU, UAW, the ABC Coalition, which includes MASA, MASB, MAISA, the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, the Detroit Chamber of Commerce, the Michigan Negotiators Association, Michigan Small and Rural School, Oakland Schools, Wayne County RESA, and the Tri-County Alliance.
IMMEDIATE ACTION NEEDED: We urge you to contact your Legislators in support of this legislation. An easy way to do that is to e-mail your Legislators the form letter on our website at: www.aftmichigan.org.
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Pension and Retiree Health Care Threatened
House Bill 4947 (Palmer, R-Romeo) would force all newly hired school employees to become members of a defined contribution plan and require many of them to pay much more for their health insurance.
The bill would replace the defined benefit retirement system with a defined contribution retirement system, beginning July 1, 2006. Employees who were hired prior to this date would continue to be part of a defined benefit retirement system, although they would have the option of electing, instead, the defined contribution retirement system.
Currently, the traditional defined benefit pension system guarantees a lifetime pension benefit for those employees who are "vested" in the system (those who have at least 10 years of service). By contrast, in the proposed new defined contribution system, a school district would contribute a fixed amount to each employee - 4 percent of his or her salary, plus a matching contribution of up to 3 percent, if the employee contributed an equal amount. The employee would take responsibility for investing his or her own account in a 401(k)-style plan, and bear the risk of whether the amount invested would grow enough to provide an adequate retirement income. The employee would be fully vested in the employer match funds after four years.
Defined contribution plans will make school employees vulnerable to the ups and downs of the stock market instead of being able to count on a secure retirement. Those employees already in a defined benefit plan will remain in a "dying" pension system, affecting how our pension funds can be invested and the number of people who remain in the system.
House Bill 4947 would also create a graded premium for the health insurance coverage provided to retirees which will place health insurance costs out of reach for many support staff as well as many employees who have taken time off for family purposes-hitting women employees particularly hard.
It will probably take decades for the graded scale premium to create cost savings, and the cost of setting up a new defined contribution plan will eat into those savings.
House Bill 4947 is currently on its second reading on the House floor. It is rumored that this bill will move quickly before the holiday recess.
Remember: The defined contribution plan you currently have guarantees you a pension for as long as your live. Under the proposal in House Bill 4947, you could outlive your investment, especially if the market have a bad spell.
IMMEDIATE ACTION NEEDED: Contact your state legislators in opposition to House Bill 4947. For your convenience, a form letter on this issue appears on our website at: http://www.aftmichigan.org.
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Include Part-Time Community College Faculty & Administrators
House Bill 4074 (Caswell, R-Hillsdale) would amend the Optional Retirement Act of 1967 to revise the definition of eligible employees to include administrators or faculty employed at a community college on a part-time basis.
Currently, "eligible employees" are defined to mean the members of the faculty and administrative staff of state-supported institutions of higher education on a full-time basis whose positions require the performance of professional services in the discharge of the educational or administrative functions of the institution.
Under House Bill 4047, this provision would also include the members of the faculty and administrative staff of community colleges employed on a part-time basis whose positions require the performance of professional services in the discharge of the educational or administrative functions of the institution.
House Bill 4047 is now on its second reading on the floor of the House.
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Remove Community Colleges From Retirement System
House Bill 5314 would remove community college employees hired after January 1, 2006, from the Michigan Public School Employees Retirement System. Community college and junior college employees hired before that date who are already members of the public school employees' retirement system would continue their membership.
The bill also would alter the composition of the Michigan Public School Employees' Retirement Board, eliminating the requirement that the board include one administrator or trustee of a community college, and requiring, instead, three representatives of the general public (rather than two as is currently the practice).
The bill specifies that for fiscal years that begin on or after March 28, 2006, the retirement system would be required to determine a separate contribution rate for a reporting unit that is a tax- supported community or junior college, in a manner prescribed under the bill, including the requirement that the unfunded actuarial accrued liability be amortized over 40 years beginning October 1, 2006 and ending on September 30, 2046.
The amount of the unfunded accrued liability on which the separate contribution rate is to be determined would be the amount that a community college was legally responsible for, and it would be calculated by actuarial analysis.
Any reduction in the unfunded liability of the system following governmental action that affected the entire system would be allocated to all of the reporting units, including community colleges, as determined by the system's actuary.
House Bill 5314 is now on its second reading on the floor of the House.
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Expanded High School Curriculum Requirements Examined
The State Board of Education is expected to approve a proposal for a mandated high school curriculum at their December meeting, including the high school content standards that would accompany the new curriculum
The Michigan Merit Core would require all high school students to have four years of mathematics, four years of English, three years of science, three years of social studies and a year each of art and physical education.
If the core curriculum becomes law, the state would have a mandated curriculum for the first time since former Governor John Engler signed a 1995 law repealing a required curriculum and replacing it with a model curriculum.
The Merit Core proposal further breaks out the requirements, with students having to take classes at least through Algebra II in mathematics, and having to take math during their senior year. The science courses would have to include biology and either physics or chemistry. And the social studies would have to include the current civics requirement as well as U.S. and world history and economics.
The core curriculum also would require all high school students to take at least one online course. Chief Academic Officer Jeremy Hughes said there is a difference between knowing how to use a computer and taking a class on it.
The core lays out the general plan for the requirements, and the high school content expectations lay out more specifically what students would have to know before they graduate. The content expectations for mathematics and English are headed out for public comment with board approval expected in March 2006 for implementation in April.
Department staff are also working to break the overall expectations into model course requirements and then to develop model tests to cover those topics. One of the goals is a program that would allow schools to offer the information both through traditional classes and through career or alternative education classes.
The plan also would allow students who take high school-level courses in middle school to count those toward the state graduation requirements as long as the school district gave high school credit for the courses.
But Mr. Hughes said some of implementing the program will also mean working with colleges and universities. He said some were not willing to accept credit for certain skills having been taken in alternative courses.
In addition to the Merit Core, the proposal also includes the 21st Century Applied Learning Core, which would not require any particular courses, but would set learning goals that should somehow be met in one or more classes. Among those requirements are global literacy (understanding and communicating with those in other cultures), civic literacy (responsible citizenship) and 21st Century learning skills (self direction and creative thinking).
Whatever the board approves as the mandated high school curriculum would next go to the Legislature. The Board hopes the Legislature will pass bills and have the requirements to the Governor by March. Otherwise, the program would not be implemented until the 2006-07 school year.
The program also would be phased in, with those students in 9th grade in the first year of implementation being the first to come under the requirements. Those students already part way through high school would not be required to meet the new standards.
The plan also calls for an opt-out for students who, by their junior year, are still not in line to meet the requirements. Parents would have to approve the change. The curriculum also would not apply to special education students unless their individual education plan called for them to complete those courses.
The Department has requested an attorney general's opinion on the Headlee Amendment implications of the requirement. There may be none under the current system unless schools can somehow show they do not have the funds to implement the changes. The Headlee amendment requires the state to reimburse local governmental units for costs of new mandated programs or services.
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At-Risk Teacher Loan Forgiveness Program
House Bill 4129 (Mortimer, R-Horton) and House Bill 5210 (Steil, R-Cascade) would create the "Excellence in Public Education Act" to establish a student loan forgiveness program for new teachers in "at-risk schools."
Under this legislation, teachers who serve in "at-risk schools" would be awarded grants to help them repay outstanding balances. To be eligible under the plan, teachers must meet the following qualifications:
- At the time of application, the individual has eligible debt.
- Is a legal resident of this state.
- Has not previously defaulted and is not currently in default on a Michigan Alternative Student Loan.
- Has accepted an offer of employment or will continue to teach in an "at-risk school" in the school's academic year that begins on or after the first July 1 following the date of the application.
- Has submitted a grant application to the authority by July 1. (The grant application shall include a certification that the applicant meets the eligibility criteria described in this section and has applied for all state or federal loan repayment programs applicable to a Michigan Alternative Student Loan.) he or she is eligible at the time of the application.
"Eligible debts" would include the total unpaid amount of all of an individual's unpaid Michigan Alternative Student Loans, calculated at the time the individual first applies for a grant under this act.
To meet the requirements, "at-risk schools" must have a student population where at least 50 percent of the students meet income eligibility criteria for free breakfast, lunch, or milk in the state's proceeding fiscal year. The Department of Education would be required to notify each college or university that offers a teacher preparation program of the availability of the teacher loan forgiveness program, as well as the individual schools that qualify for the program.
House Bills 4129 and 5210 have passed the House and are now before the Senate Education Committee.
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Return Unused Michigan Merit Award Money
House Bill 5232 (Caswell, R-Hillsdale) amend the Michigan Merit Award Scholarship Act to require a university to return any unused merit award money if a student leaves school.
The bill would require the Michigan Merit Award Board to pay, on behalf of an eligible student, all merit award scholarship money to an approved postsecondary educational institution in which the student had enrolled. Currently under the law, the payment can be made either to a student or to an approved postsecondary educational institution.
Under House Bill 5232, the institution would be required to deposit the money in an account for the benefit of the student and disburse money from that account to pay for eligible costs. If a student elected to leave the institution without completing the classes in which he or she had enrolled, the institution would be required to return any money remaining in the student's account to the Department of Treasury.
The Department, in turn, would be required to deposit the money into an account for the student. However, any money remaining in an account for five years would escheat to the state.
House Bill 5232 has been referred for second reading on the floor of the House.
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Children of Veterans Tuition Act
The Veterans Trust Fund Board has announced that at the end of this year they will no longer fund the Children of Veterans Tuition Grant Program designed to aid the children of veterans who were killed or deemed disabled. In response, House Bill 4001 (Caul, R-Mt. Pleasant) House Bill 4002 (Moore, R-Farwell) and House Bill 5091 (Caul, R-Mt. Pleasant) were introduced to transfer this program to the Department of Treasury.
This package of bills would create the "Children of Veterans Tuition Act" establishing a similar program that would be administered by the Michigan Higher Education Assistance Authority within the Department of Treasury, beginning with winter term of the 2005-06 academic year.
Under the program, the children of a Michigan veteran who was killed, died from disabilities, is listed as missing in action, or is judged to be totally and permanently disabled as a result of military service-related injuries, may receive up to $2,800 annually for undergraduate tuition costs at a degree- or certificate granting public or independent nonprofit college or university, junior college, or community college in the State when enrolled as a full-time student.
House Bill 4001 would add part-time students to those eligible for tuition support, and set the maximum allowable financial support at half the amount available to a full-time student.
This legislation would also allow a taxpayer to designate on his or her annual return, beginning with the 2006 tax year, a contribution of $2 or more to the Michigan Higher Education Assistance Authority for the Children of Veterans Tuition Program. The contribution would be subtracted from the taxpayer's refund or added to the taxpayer's liability. No money from the contributions could be used for administration of the bill.
These bills were presented to the Governor for her signature on November 21.
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Meningitis Information
House Bill 4726 (Mortimer, R-Horton) requires schools that provide information on immunizations, infectious disease, medications, or other school health issues to parents in at least grades 6, 9, and 12 at the beginning of a school year, to include meningitis information.
The meningitis information must include the causes and symptoms of the disease, how it is spread, and sources where parents and guardians can obtain additional information. It must also include where vaccination of a child against the disease can be obtained.
The Department of Education, in cooperation with the Department of Community Health, must develop and make available to schools the information specified in this law, in the manner the Department of Education determined to be the most cost-effective and programmatically-effective, which would have to include at least posting the information on its website.
House Bill 4726 was signed by the Governor on November 22 to become Public Act 240 of 2005.
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