Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/610158
10 ADVOCATE | WINTER 2015/16 hrough your voice, your commit- ment, and your AEA. This is a huge win for you and our students and is a direct result of your membership in the Arizona Education As- sociation, whose staff and members stood up for students, support staff, and teachers to fi ght to improve our public schools. As your voice, AEA leaders and mem- bers spoke to the press to tell the story of the impact of cuts in the classroom and put public pressure on our elected leaders. Thank you to Dysart EA member Beth Maloney and Glendale Union EA President Jonathan Parker for speaking on behalf of teachers at press conferences. Thank you to the many AEA members who agreed to attend media trainings on a Saturday and overcome their nervousness to tell their story in interviews for televi- sion, radio, and in print. Thank you to the many AEA members who used social media to get the word out to their net- works and build a movement of support for improving our schools. As your advocate, AEA's president, lob- byist, and attorneys negotiated with legis- lative leaders and the governor's offi ce to get the best deal for our students that gets money to our schools as soon as possible, with no policy strings attached. As a dues paying member to your pro- fessional association, AEA challenged the legislature's willful refusal to fund schools to keep up with infl ation, as directed by voters. AEA launched a campaign to restore funding to our schools by rais- ing public awareness through media and grassroots organizing. AEA staff trained and worked with members in issue orga- nizing, messaging and communication, and building coalitions with parents and local community members. This cam- paign culminated in thousands of activists contacting Governor Doug Ducey to call a special session to settle the infl ation fund- ing lawsuit. And then it happened. The governor called for special session and legislation passed to settle the long-standing lawsuit over infl ation funding. This never would at the capitol How Did the Lawsuit Finally Get Settled? have happened without your membership in AEA. Without the public outcry over the teacher shortage and the condition of our classrooms, without the voicemail and email inbox of the governor's offi ce fi lling up with calls to settle the lawsuit, without you and thousands of other AEA members across the state standing up for students, the litigation would have continued indefi nitely and schools would not see any increase in funding. Remember this every time you hear the governor say that he is "giving educators the resources they have been asking for" and that "this is a loud message that Arizo- na's top priority is our kids," he is respond- ing to a movement created and driven by the Arizona Education Association. T Top: Glendale Union Education Association President Jonathan Parker speaks at a press conference this past summer urging the governor to call special session to settle the infl ation funding lawsuit. Bottom: Dysart Education Association member and 2014 Arizona Teacher of the Year, Beth Maloney, speaks at a press conference last year calling on the state to pay the court-ordered funding, approved by voters, and owed to our students.