Week of 5-1-2023

Inside this issue

• PASSED! PA House of Representatives passes top PSEA legislative priorities
• PSEA member featured on “PA Newsmakers”
• Upcoming Center for Professional Learning events and PEARL
• Member Benefits spotlight: PSEA Voluntary Vision Plan

This week, the state House of Representatives passed three bills that are among PSEA’s top legislative priorities. They now go to the state Senate.

• House Bill 141 – “Grow Your Own”
  Approved May 1, this bill will create a program to help paraprofessionals and other school support staff go back to college to earn their teaching credentials.
  
  
• House Bill 688 – scholarship program for aspiring educators
  Approved May 2, this bill will establish the Pennsylvania Teach Scholarship Program, which will create an affordable pathway for talented, caring people to become teachers while lowering their student loan debt in the process. 
  
  
• House Bill 299 – extends Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requirements to public sector employees
  Approved by the House on May 3, this bill will extend OSHA protections to school and other public sector employees, ensuring that state and local government employees receive the same occupational health and safety protections as their counterparts in the private sector so that Pennsylvania’s students and school staff members can teach and learn in healthy environments. Currently, public sector workers in Pennsylvania are not covered by federal guidelines for on-the-job safety. 

Read more about these three bills in the Press Release

We can’t thank you enough for the work you did to get these bills passed – sending thousands of emails to lawmakers, and making your voices heard up and down the corridors of the Capitol. This is the power of our union.

We’ll keep you updated on next steps as these bills advance to the Senate.

Read more about PSEA’s legislative priorities here

Interboro EA member and English learner teacher Andrea Bitner was on “PA Newsmakers with Terry Madonna” recently to discuss her book “Take Me Home,” a first-hand account from 11 of her former students about what it’s really like to become bilingual in America.

Bitner, who was featured in the February 2023 issue of Voice, also talks about the important work of EL educators: “As bilingual educators, we are not only instructors but connectors and navigators, and part of that navigation piece and connection piece is helping teachers and educators and other kids in the building and classrooms understand those cultural pieces that kids walk into the door with, and learning to respect, accept, and admire all of them for what they are.”

Click the thumbnail image above to watch online (Bitner’s segment begins at the 12:17 minute mark).

PEARL

Looking for a convenient and flexible way to earn Act 48 credits, Chapter 14 verification, or postgraduate credits? As a PSEA member, you have exclusive access to over 95 courses through PEARL.

Here are just three of the courses you have access to:

• Building Relationships at a Distance
• Epic! the "Netflix" of Books for Educators and Students
• Best Practices for Effective Distance Learning and Instruction with Introduction to Nearpod

Book Discussions

• The Questioneers
  • June 29, 10-11 a.m.
• Al Capone Does My Shirts
  
  • July 13, 10-11 a.m.
• Treasure Hunters
  • July 20, 10-11 a.m.

Member Well-being

• Mindful Mondays
  • June 12, 4:30 p.m.
• Mindful Mondays
  • July 17, 8:30 a.m.
• Mindful Mondays
  • Aug. 7, 8:30 a.m.

The PSEA Voluntary Vision Plan offers low monthly payments, great frame and contact lenses allowances, exam coverage, fitting fee coverage for contact lenses, and the choice of 12-month or 24-month coverage. The plan is available to all PSEA members and eligible dependents to age 26. Enrollment opens the first of each month.

The 12-month plan highlights include a $300 frame allowance or $150 contact lenses allowance with monthly premiums of only $12 for single coverage, $24 for two-party, and $35 for family coverage.

The 24-month plan highlights include a $300 frame allowance or $175 contact lenses allowance with monthly premiums of only $8 for single coverage, $16 for two-party, and $23 for family coverage.

For more information on the vision program please visit https://pseahwf.org/voluntary_vision/ or call the PSEA Health & Welfare Fund at 800-944-7732 ext. 7024.