AFT President on Trump's Plan to End Healthcare Subsidies

For Immediate Release October 13, 2017 Contact: AFT Media Affairs 202-879-4458 AFTPress@aft.org www.aft.org Statement by AFT President Randi Weingarten on President Trump’s Plan To End Essential Healthcare Subsidies WASHINGTON— President Trump announced last night that he will end subsidies to health insurance companies that help 7 million low-income Americans pay out-of-pocket costs. Earlier in the day, he signed an executive order to overhaul federal health regulations that will result in fewer protections for the most vulnerable Americans and will encourage the creation of health insurance plans that provide fewer benefits and fewer protections. AFT President Randi Weingarten released the following statement: “President Trump’s one-two punch yesterday targeting the financial underpinning of the Affordable Care Act is designed to gut the ACA. And his proposed replacement? Empty words. For example, if the president believed that making insurance available across state lines would make it more affordable, why not include it in the bipartisan work Sens. Lamar Alexander and Patty Murray have been doing in the Senate? “While his words are empty, the president’s actions will make America sicker, poorer and worse off—for individuals who will have fewer and fewer insurance options, and for states whose budgets will now worsen as more people will be unable to afford health insurance and will revert to using emergency room medicine. Trump owns this unconscionable situation and bears responsibility for the harm it will cause. “We support the states that will be taking legal action, and urge Congress to act to protect Americans from Trump’s reckless actions.”

AFT President Randi Weingarten on President Trump's Executive Order to Undermine Protections for Americans' Health Insurance Coverage

For Immediate Release October 12, 2017 Contact: Leslie Getzinger 202-321-4034 lgetzing@aft.org www.aft.org Statement of AFT President Randi Weingarten on President Trump’s Executive Order to Undermine Protections for Americans’ Health Insurance Coverage Under the Affordable Care Act ‘Donald Trump owns the unwinding of the Affordable Care Act.’ WASHINGTON—President Trump today signed an executive order to overhaul federal health regulations, which he said would lead to the full repeal of the Affordable Care Act. The order will result in fewer protections for the most vulnerable Americans, such as those with pre-existing conditions, and will encourage sham, loosely regulated health insurance plans that won’t provide adequate benefits. Ultimately, this could lead to the collapse of individual health insurance markets through which millions of Americans obtain coverage. AFT President Randi Weingarten released the following statement: “Donald Trump owns the unwinding of the Affordable Care Act. He is ignoring the rule of law, refusing to compromise, and doing an end-run around Congress in order to strip people of their healthcare. Millions of Americans will be worse off because of his actions. “This is an ongoing pattern of the Trump administration’s callous sabotage of Obamacare, and it will cause real harm to American families, leading to increased premiums and loss of coverage for those most in need of healthcare and flooding markets with cheap, limited ‘junk’ insurance.”

AFT President Randi Weingarten on White House "Wish List" for Negotiations on the Future of the DACA Program

For Immediate Release October 10, 2017 Contact: AFT Media Affairs 202-879-4458 AFTPress@aft.org www.aft.org Hopes of a deal to protect Dreamers—young immigrants brought to this country as children—diminished as President Trump suggested he would use them as pawns to secure funding for a border wall, crack down on minors fleeing violence in Central America, and curb federal grants to sanctuary cities. WASHINGTON—“What happened to President Trump’s pledge to ‘deal with DACA with heart’? Or the ‘deal’ he made with Democrats? These proposals are simply a reprise of the worst aspects of the Trump campaign's anti-immigrant and anti-refugee scapegoating—reasserted, one assumes, to make Dreamers pawns in a power game. It is exactly why people hate Washington, D.C., politics: Instead of solving problems like what will happen to the 800,000 young Americans covered by DACA—who are learning in, working in and completely woven into the country that is their home—they are held hostage as a way to make our broken immigration system even worse. “A nation built and enriched by immigrants should welcome those pursuing the American dream, not pull the ladder up behind us. It's time to demonstrate the best of America—not the worst—and pass the bipartisan Dream Act.”

YOU'RE INVITED: 2017 EdMN Political Conference

Greetings, local leaders!

Online registration for the 2017 Political Conference is now live! We have made some exciting changes to the conference and hope that you will send at least one person from your local. See full details about the conference schedule and session themes on the Education Minnesota website.

The first member from each local will have all conference and lodging fees covered. Local presidents can give the discount code "PCfirstmember" to their designated attendee. That person will enter the code when registering.

Fees for sending additional members:

Hotel rooms are included in the registration fee and will not be billed separately. All hotel rooms will be single-occupancy, unless double-occupancy is requested. 

Friday and Saturday participant, with hotel - $80 per member: Includes all sessions on Friday and Saturday, meals, parking and a single hotel room. One member from each local will be fully funded by Education Minnesota (see below for more details). 

Friday and Saturday participant, without hotel - $40 per member: Includes all sessions on Friday and Saturday, meals, parking (no hotel). 

Friday only - $20 per member: Dinner on Friday evening, parking and admission to the gubernatorial candidate forum.

Education Minnesota will pay all conference and lodging fees for ESPs and Education Minnesota student members.

Also new this year: members will be eligible to receive a child care reimbursement, per Education Minnesota financial policies. Members can receive up to $60 a day for child care with a signed, official receipt or invoice from the daycare or babysitter. Receipt books can be purchased wherever office supplies are sold.

Go to this website to view conference information and the registration page to see how members will be asked to sign up. This page is also linked to on the Education Minnesota website.

The scholarship application process is also live. Members can apply for a full or partial scholarship on the scholarship application webpage.

There are changes to the scholarship process this year.

To receive a full scholarship, members must make commitments to two or more activities or roles in the 2018 campaign. Partial scholarships will be awarded to members who commit to at least one activity or role.

Here are the qualifying activities and roles:

Worksite political action leaders
Local union political action leaders
Digital engagement leaders
Commitment to at least two doorknocking or phonebanking shifts

Full descriptions of these activities and roles are on the scholarship application webpage.Members will receive a discount code for their registration fees once their application is approved.

Finally, we have confirmed plans for a regional political conference at Bemidji State University on Feb. 2-3. A pre-registration link for this conference is now available online.

If you'd like the web links to copy and paste into your own emails, please use the following:

Here is the Education Minnesota website page on the political conference -- includes all links listed below:https://www.educationminnesota.org/advocacy/politicalaction/Political-conference

Here is the live registration link:
http://www.cvent.com/events/political-conference-2017/event-summary-a3743bea0807477dbb4a448725659cfe.aspx

Here is the scholarship application link:
https://www.cvent.com/c/express/fc007dea-71bc-41c6-be88-bb81341ae1a5

Here is the Bemidji regional conference pre-registration link:
https://goo.gl/forms/pEkn0o6GopT23wJw1

Questions? Contact Anna Brelje via email or at 651-292-4841.

COMMENT AND REVIEW: Board Policy 8.03 College & University Related Foundations Procedures

SENT ON BEHALF OF LAURA M. KING

Good Morning

Board Policy 8.03 College and University Related Foundations and it’s related System Procedures 8.03.01 and 8.03.02 are ready for review and comment. Responses are requested by November 3, 2017.

Here is the link to the P&P review site where you can view the drafts and leave comments: https://mnscu.sharepoint.com/sites/policy/SitePages/Reviews.aspx

Any questions on the policy and procedures or how to leave a comment can be referred to Mike Nordby at michael.nordby@MinnState.edu.

AFT on the Passage of the House Budget Resolution

For Immediate Release October 5, 2017 Contact: Michael Heenan 202-585-4371 mheenan@aft.org www.aft.org WASHINGTON—American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten released the following statement on the passage of the House budget resolution: “Republicans passed a budget resolution that decimates public education, Medicare and Medicaid to give tax breaks to the rich and corporations. This isn’t a budget; it’s a setup for a massive tax break for those at the top and will further rig our economy against working people while simultaneously hurting kids, seniors and the poor. Today’s budget action is more proof that President Trump and congressional Republicans continue to govern for the powerful at the expense of the vulnerable. “The underlying tradeoff that runs through this budget—providing massive tax cuts to the wealthy while slashing programs that support the most vulnerable among us—reflects the absolutely wrong priority and puts key K-12 and higher education programs at risk. This is especially evident as we need to invest and rebuild after the recent hurricanes. It is no time to have to cut services to American citizens in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Texas and Florida to provide a tax cut 80 percent of which will benefit the top 1 percent. “The AFT will encourage tax reform that improves working people’s lives, makes the tax system fairer and ensures adequate revenues for vital government services.”

Update on Alleged Illegal Infiltration of AFT Michigan by Project Veritas

For Immediate Release October 7, 2017 Contact: AFT Media Affairs 202-879-4458 AFTPress@aft.org www.aft.org Project Veritas Files to Remove Case to Federal Court; Emergency Restraining Order Remains in Place MICHIGAN—A federal court will now consider the legal case filed by AFT Michigan against

Project Veritas and its alleged operative Marisa Jorge. Project Veritas attorneys filed a last-minute request to move the case from state to federal court. This follows a pattern of Project Veritas dodging responsibility for allegations of unlawful conduct, including attempting to evade being served with a restraining order and summons. The restraining order barring Project Veritas from publishing any material it illegally obtained during its infiltration of AFT Michigan, issued last week by Third Judicial Circuit Court of Michigan Judge Brian Sullivan, remains in effect. The case has been assigned to United States District Court Judge Paul Borman in the Eastern District of Michigan. A hearing date is pending. AFT Michigan alleges that Jorge and Project Veritas committed fraudulent, unauthorized and unlawful surveillance of AFT Michigan staff, leaders and associates for the purpose of distorting and disseminating that surveillance in order to smear the union and halt its work championing opportunity for students, teachers, families and communities. AFT Michigan is prepared to provide further evidence of the alleged theft, including evidence obtained from forensic investigations. Witnesses and affidavits will attest that Jorge violated Michigan law, which bars fraudulent misrepresentation, larceny, trespass and making recordings without both parties’ consent. Jorge, using the alias Marissa Perez, secured an internship with AFT Michigan, ostensibly to obtain material Project Veritas could use in one of its infamously misleading hit videos, according to the complaint. The restraining order is against Jorge as well as “her agents, employees and those acting in concert,” which would include Project Veritas, also named in the complaint. AFT Michigan’s complaint is here: https://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/complaint_aftmi_veritas_092717.pdf The temporary restraining order against Project Veritas and Marisa Jorge is here: https://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/tro_aftmi_veritas_092817.pdf