Arkansas Education Association (AEA) Legislative Goals
for the 87th Session of the Arkansas General Assembly

Education is playing a major role in the 2009 regular session of the 87th General Assembly. Increased funding for public school employee health insurance and improvements in the Fair Dismissal Act for Education Support Professionals are two of the most critical issues that AEA believes must be addressed.

Other education-related issues AEA will pursue include:

• Provide the resources necessary to ensure that public school facilities are adequate and equitable, as mandated by the Supreme Court.
  
• To the extent possible, provide additional funding for schools from sources of revenue that do not further exacerbate the inequities in our current tax code.
  
• Improve salaries for all school employees.
  
• Improve professional development for teachers and educational support professionals to ensure that it is designed by the affected employees and is relevant to their professional needs.
  
• Ensure that all teachers granted a teaching license must meet the same high standards.
  
• Maintain adequate funding for the Arkansas Teacher Retirement System to attract and retain highly qualified teachers and educational support professionals in our public schools.
  
• Ensure that the school accountability program (ACTAAP) is functioning in a way that enhances school effectiveness and student performance.
  
• Ensure the proper use of standardized tests and encourage the use of a variety of student performance measurements.
• Maintain and follow through on the goal set by the state of providing a quality preschool program for three and four-year-olds whose parents are at 200 percent of poverty or less.
  
• Establish policies that encourage the meaningful involvement of school employees in their own professional lives – setting working conditions, educational policy, etc. A professional negotiations/recognition law for teachers and educational support professionals is needed to most effectively achieve this goal.
  
• Close achievement gaps by reducing class size in the primary grades, and by providing school-based health care, effective after-school and summer programs, and appropriate professional development for all school employees.
  
• Ensure that the system for evaluating teachers and school employees is fair and consistent across the state.

AEA will also oppose legislation that would negatively impact the quality of education provided by Arkansas public schools, such as voucher plans, teacher pay plans that tie a teacher’s pay to student test scores and/or subjective evaluations by supervisors, and proposals to reduce and weaken teacher licensure standards and teacher quality.

AEA will oppose legislation that will reduce general revenue support for public education and other vital services from the state

Together we can, and together we will build a great public school for every child.