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1 month ago | 
nea.org | Amanda Litvinov
Iowa Spanish teacher Nancy Baker Curtis’s nine-and-a-half-year-old son Charlie loves monster trucks, playing with his friends, and bike-riding with his mom. Earlier this year, he was running down the sidewalk, fell, and had to get stitches in his chin. “It’s terrible, of course, but it’s also amazing because at the age of two, he couldn’t crawl or even sit up,” says Baker Curtis.
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1 month ago | 
nea.org | Amanda Litvinov
“I’ve spent the last 10 years working myself to death, doing every extra duty job I could to make sure my retirement would be enough to sustain me,” says California teacher LaTonya Curlin. “Starting next year, I won’t have to work those four extra duty jobs.” When former President Joe Biden signed the Social Security Fairness Act into law on Jan. 5, Curlin’s future suddenly looked a lot brighter.
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1 month ago | 
nea.org | Amanda Litvinov
But when former President Joe Biden signed the Social Security Fairness Act into law, on Jan. 5, the future suddenly looked brighter for her and many other retired educators. The law repealed the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP), rules that became part of Social Security law in 1983, unfairly reducing the benefits that public employees or their spouses earned. The victory means everything to Genone and educators like her.
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2 months ago | 
nea.org | Amanda Litvinov
On April 30, the Supreme Court of the United States will hear two cases that could force states to use public funding for religious charter schools, which would drain resources for traditional public schools and further degrade the once-sacred wall separating church and state. In Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v. DrummondandSt. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School v.
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2 months ago | 
nea.org | Amanda Litvinov
The Trump administration’s torrent of firings and funding cuts at the U.S. Department of Education has drawn broad criticism from experts and former education secretaries in both parties. President Trump and Elon Musk’s stated intention to “move education back to the states” is equally concerning to public education supporters and experts. Why?
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Mar 24, 2025 | 
nea.org | Amanda Litvinov
By: Amanda Litvinov, Senior Writer/Editor Key Takeaways The Trump administration has cut the workforce of the Department of Education by 50 percent since January. The massive staff reductions have eliminated all or nearly all employees in certain offices, rendering them non-functional. Dismantling the Department of Education or slashing existing federal funding will have devastating effects on students.
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Jan 21, 2025 | 
nea.org | Amanda Litvinov
Betsy Perry is a National Board Certified Teacher who works with special needs students in Montgomery County, Md. She spent most of her 30-year career as a special education teacher at Harmony Hills Elementary School in Silver Spring, Md. There, she worked with many students who have layers of needs: “Some have had interrupted schooling, some are fleeing instability or violence or experienced trauma, and many are learning English,” says Perry.
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Jan 3, 2025 | 
nea.org | Amanda Litvinov
250,000 the number of NEA members who volunteered through their union in the 2024 election cycle—a record high number. This month, educators will see a new Congress sworn in and a new presidential administration take shape in Washington. Conditions for public education and labor unions will be challenging. But voters delivered some important wins in election 2024 that hold promise for educators, students, and families who rely on public education. Here are three bright spots:1.
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Nov 20, 2024 | 
nea.org | Amanda Litvinov
When President-elect Donald Trump named Linda McMahon as his nominee for Secretary of Education on Tuesday, the news did not sit well with the nation’s public-school educators. McMahon is not only unqualified to run the agency, she has spent years pushing policies that would defund and destroy public schools. If this description sounds familiar, it’s because McMahon is strikingly similar to Trump’s Secretary of Education in his first term, Betsy DeVos.
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Nov 15, 2024 | 
nea.org | Amanda Litvinov
On Tuesday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to repeal two provisions of the Social Security law that take a devastating toll on the retirement security of some public employees, including educators. The move comes after decades of advocacy on the part of NEA and NEA-Retired to explain to lawmakers how the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) hurt teachers.
