After a local team of union members interviewed candidates, MFPE PAC has chosen to endorse the candidates for various offices and positions around the state. GFEA members were part of the team of interviewers who met with candidates and recommended who to endorse for the local state legislative candidates.   If you have questions about who to vote for and would like to know who has been endorsed by MFPE PAC please go to the link below for the complete list of endorsements.

​  Please be sure to register to vote if you have not done so but also be sure to make time to fill out your ballot and send it in if you are voting absentee, or go to the polls and vote in person on November 8th.   

     While there has not been a lot of information about the Safety Levy, there have been some incorrect statements made and considerable confusion about what these funds would be used for in Cascade County.
       Please take the time to find out more about this important vote, as public safety is not just the name of the levy, the approval of the levy could impact safety here in Cascade County.
        Recruitment and Retention of Deputy Sheriff positions and our fellow MFPE member Deputy Cascade County Attorneys account for 75% of the funds generated by the passage of the levy.   14% is allotted to pretrial services, like monitoring inmates in our community and has the potential to not only decrease the jails occupancy while ensuring monitoring (including electronic and alcohol monitoring of individuals awaiting trial) but also increasing the likely hood that they will have their day in court.  11% of the allotment is for Increased school safety and includes one additional SRO (school resource officer) to help cover the 7 Cascade County Rural Schools who are currently served by a single SRO.   
     There are two competing ideas about a small portion of the funds generated by the levy, but what is not at issue is who will make the decision as to how those funds will be spent.  The decision as to who or where school safety officers might be placed rest solely in the hands of local school boards and superintendents.  The Cascade County Commissioners will be likely be involved in the approval of those funds as well,  For more information please access the We Stand Safe Website for additional details and specifics as well as contacts to get your questions answered:  Click here for link  We Stand Safe

A supermajority of U.S. parents give their public schools and teachers top marks for their Herculean efforts to respond to the challenges of COVID-19, fresh polling shows, with perceptions of teachers unions soaring to record highs.
Black parents and parents in urban areas in particular feel that teachers and their unions have played an overwhelmingly positive role, and they blame the virus—rather than the professionals charged with their kids’ care—for difficulties during the pandemic.

Overall, 72 percent of parents say their school provides excellent or good-quality education, and 78 percent endorse the quality and performance of their teachers, up 7 points from 2013, according to a new national survey by Hart Research Associates and Lake Research Partners.
Teachers unions are seen by parents as a more positive force in education today than prior to the pandemic, mirroring public polling conducted over the past year and tracking record high support(link is external) for the labor movement as a whole.

AFT President Randi Weingarten said the survey confirms what she has seen in her months of school visits throughout the country. “Parents value educators’ heroic actions to help their kids through COVID and view them as partners to keep schools open safely and deliver the social, emotional and academic support kids need.”
“This polling shows the virus is our enemy, not each other. Parents are saying teachers are heroes for their efforts during this pandemic and they deeply value how their public schools have gone above and beyond to help their kids recover and thrive,” she said.

“Some on the far right have tried to exploit this crisis to usher in a shameful new chapter of teacher bashing, but they’re failing dismally. Parents are public school proud, and they are standing with the community, teachers and their unions—not only in defense of public education but also to address inadequate school funding, students’ progress during COVID, lower class size, and the conditions necessary for academic recovery, including enough counselors and nurses and adequate teacher pay.”

Parents are very satisfied with the way their schools have handled the COVID-19 pandemic. Fully 78 percent of parents express satisfaction with their children’s schools’ overall handling of the pandemic, including 82 percent of urban parents, 77 percent of Black parents and 74 percent of Hispanic parents. More specifically, 83 percent are satisfied with the schools’ efforts to keep students and staff safe.
They blamed the virus, not educators, when schools needed to temporarily switch to remote instruction or make other schedule changes. They do not believe that schools reopened too slowly, and they reject the claim that schools waited too long to resume in-person instruction.

Just 22 percent of parents believe that schools waited too long, while three-fourths feel that the school either struck a good balance between safety and learning (48 percent) or moved too quickly to reopen buildings (26 percent). Just 20 percent of urban parents and 11 percent of Black parents feel that schools waited too long before reopening.

In response to the omicron outbreak, some schools needed to periodically close buildings or temporarily return to online learning in December. Significantly, very few parents (14 percent, including 15 percent of urban parents and 9 percent of Black parents) blame teachers or teachers unions for these disruptions. Instead, most feel that these disruptions were beyond anyone’s control (47 percent) or were the fault of districts and administrators (26 percent).

Parents say their children’s teachers communicate with parents and keep them informed (80 percent), an important reason for these positive views of teachers. Similarly, 79 percent are satisfied with the job their school does communicating with parents about academics. Four in five say they are satisfied with their children’s public schools when it comes to helping their children achieve their full potential, while only 21 percent report feeling dissatisfied.
And, by a remarkable 31-point margin, parents feel that teachers unions have a positive (48 percent), rather than negative (17 percent), effect on the quality of education provided by public schools, a 23-point jump since 2013. Urban parents (62 percent to 9 percent) and Black parents (57 percent to 4 percent) feel that teachers unions are playing a positive role.

Hart Research Associates and Lake Research Partners conducted a national survey of 1,308 public school parents who were registered to vote, including subsamples of 206 Black parents and 240 Hispanic parents.
The survey was completed online between Dec. 15 and Dec. 22, 2021. The margin of error is +/-3.1 percent.
The full memo  can be viewed here.

​Contact:
Andrew Crook
o: 202-393-8637 | c: 607-280-6603
acrook@aft.orgWASHINGTON--                                                                                                                                 
 The AFT represents 1.7 million pre-K through 12th-grade teachers; paraprofessionals and other school-related personnel; higher education faculty      and professional staff; federal, state and local government employees; nurses and healthcare workers; and early childhood educators.

MFPE isn't just the biggest and best union in Montana.
We're also the most professionally diverse union in the United States.
 
MFPE members are educators, public employees, nurses, law enforcement officers, and so much more. Our power is in our unity and solidarity, regardless of location or profession.
 
Our newest video -  "Together"  - drives the point home.
 
                             Help us spread the word!   

REGISTER HERE
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Conference Registration Fees ​

NO ONSITE REGISTRATION - See conference registration fees for dates and fees.  

 

Fellow teachers and members of the Great Falls Education Association are excited for you to visit us!
   Great Falls offers a variety of places to shop, museums to visit, restaurants to sample diverse cuisine, and entertainment venues.
Come to participate in the conference and enjoy your time with us!  ​