Legislation could strip educators of their bargaining rights.
Support strong public schools by taking these actions today.
President Trump and his Department of Defense are canceling nearly a half-a-billion-dollars’ worth of much-needed projects that would build schools and daycares at military bases here and abroad—all to fund his wall at the southern border.
Only Congress—after hearing from you!— can apply the kind of pressure to make President Trump stop this immoral reappropriation of funds.
Tell your representatives in Washington to speak out against President Trump’s plan to pay for the wall with funds meant for public schools at military bases.
NEA members who work for Department of Defense schools in places like Europe and Asia are being unfairly taxed. When they move overseas to educate military-connected students, or return to the U.S. after retiring or separating from federal employment they are taxed on moving allowances and assistance provided to them.
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 made the assistance that these NEA members receive when moving to or from a duty location taxable. Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) employees and other federal workers who move between two duty stations can be reimbursed for these taxes. But employees moving to their first duty location or moving back to the U.S. after completing their federal careers are currently ineligible for the reimbursement.
These civilian employees should not be taxed for the work they do in faraway places. The Senate version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) would extend tax reimbursement to these incoming/outgoing employees. Let’s urge members of the House of Representatives to include this language in their version of NDAA.
The Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) is engaging in illegal contract actions against its employees – thousands of whom are members of NEA and its Federal Education Association affiliate.
In its Stateside schools, DoDEA is forcing educators to work 24 additional, unpaid hours each academic quarter on “busy work” unrelated to their jobs, denying students the support they deserve and creating havoc for educators struggling to find last-minute child care and make other arrangements. DoDEA’s actions are part of its illegal implementation of an unsigned contract that the Federal Education Association – Stateside Region is contesting.
Overseas, DoDEA is trying to eliminate all grievance and due-process rights for workers, seeking to make them at-will employees subject to management’s whims. DoDEA also intends to extend the duty day without added compensation, curtail the ability of union representatives to serve their members, and make it even harder to fix pay problems. These are just a few of the harmful actions they’re proposing in contract negotiations for Overseas employees.
Congress is the closest thing DoDEA schools have to a school board. A group of Senators and Representatives have sent a bipartisan letter to DoDEA management opposing its illegal contract actions, but we must all speak out. Tell your elected representatives to rein in DoDEA’s harmful actions and protect the quality of Department of Defense schools, for the sake of the military dependents they serve and the educators who work in them.
A joint resolution relating to a national emergency declared by the President of February 15, 2019
A bill to close a loophole created by the 2017 GOP tax bill that denies some federal workers full reimbursement for moving expenses
A bill to waive the Teacher Loan Forgiveness program’s five consecutive years of service requirement for military spouses who relocate during the school year due to military orders.
Read, download and share these resources relating to Department of Defense Schools (DoDEA).
