TEACH+still+advocating+for+more+education+funds,+teacher+recalls

== = = =By Stacy Lee= =//Published by the McKeesport Daily News//= =//12/23/11//= = = = = =Tell Everyone All Cuts Hurt continues to lobby for additional education funding and the return of furloughed educators.= =TEACH members Steve Singer and Jill Fleming-Salopek spoke at a statewide Pennsylvania State Education Association conference Dec. 2 in Downtown Pittsburgh.= ="They have two statewide conferences every year and this was one of them," Singer said. "I was asked to be on a panel for discussion. I presented what TEACH has done and how local unions can emulate what we have done in battling anti-education legislation."= =He said the Reading Education Association also discussed its work.= ="PSEA had been instrumental in everything that TEACH has done," Singer said. "It was a good opportunity to make connections, and we were very well received by other delegates."= =He said many educators remain furloughed and their unemployment compensation is running out.= =Just a few days prior to the PSEA conference, Fleming-Salopek traveled to Washington, D.C., on Nov. 30 to advocate for the Emergency Unemployment Compensation Act, which would allow laid-off workers to collect unemployment for up to 99 weeks, as opposed to the normal state-provided 26 weeks. Fleming-Salopek spoke at a Congressional Press Conference at the U.S. Capitol.= ="The focus for me was being a furloughed teacher and the cutting of qualified middle class jobs for educated and skilled workers " not just in Pennsylvania, but across the nation," she said. "There were about 200 people there including the press, national labor unions, senators and union people."= =Fleming-Salopek represented education.= ="I spoke about how it was difficult to find a job comparable to the ones being lost as far as salary and benefits," she said. "I talked about the Steel Valley School District and cuts to education in states like Pennsylvania. You're seeing that in states with Republican governors."= =Fleming-Salopek said she represented herself as a mother of three children, an educator and a furloughed teacher speaking for children suffering because of education cuts and for the people in education who are losing their jobs and having difficulty finding comparable work.= =She said other laid-off workers spoke representing various occupations.= =Fleming-Salopek also was at the Occupy Pittsburgh protest on Oct. 19 at Bank of New York Mellon in Downtown Pittsburgh. The protesters then walked to the satellite Attorney General's Office and sent Fleming-Salopek in to speak.= ="I'm not part of Occupy Pittsburgh, but I do support their message that we're the 99 percent," she said. "BNY is being investigated in other states like New York and Florida. There's wasn't any investigation in Pennsylvania. I don't know if the accusations are right about BNY. But if it is being investigated in other states, it should be investigated here."= =There have been accusations made that BNY defrauded public and private pension funds by $2 billion.= =Fleming-Salopek was accompanied by fellow TEACH member Barry Specter to the Occupy Pittsburgh protest.= =Another TEACH member, Ryan Dunmire, spoke at a similar demonstration on the Greenfield Bridge in November.= =Fleming-Salopek, Specter and Dunmire all were furloughed from Steel Valley School District this summer. Singer still works there.= =Fleming-Salopek said a major victory for TEACH was when the state House rejected the school voucher bill on Dec. 14 by a 105-90 vote.= =More information is available about TEACH at www.svteach.wikispaces.com.= = = = Read more: [|TEACH still advocating for more education funds, teacher recalls - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review] [|http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/dailynewsmckeesport/s_773452.html#ixzz1i496b5or] = = =

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