We need to get in touch with our Senators to get them to pass the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) Reauthorization Bill, S.1827, as soon as possible. The CHIP program expired at the end of September, and many States are running out of money to help young children stay or become healthy. On November 3 the House passed a Bill, which needs improvement to bring it up to the expired provisions and funding, and sent it to the Senate, which has not acted yet. The Bill may be folded into legislation to keep the Government funded after December 8, so your immediate action is needed.
In addition, the tax reform Bills passed in the House and the Senate, which currently are moving toward reconciliation between the two versions, would produce a drastic reorienting of our tax burdens and economic welfare in favor of the wealthy, and would saddle future generations with huge fiscal deficits which might bankrupt our Government. The Senate Bill could destroy health care. Please keep the pressure up on your Senators and Representatives to oppose the Conference Report on these Bills. In terms of communication, visits to the local or DC offices are best, followed by emails through the Senator’s or Representative’s websites, phone calls to the DC offices and petitions.
Check in with us at http://peaceeducators.org/take-action/ regularly to keep up to date with our action alerts.
NAEYC Conference Brought P.E.A.C.E. Together Again
The NAEYC Annual Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, from November 15-18, gave us a chance meet in person again, as we do every year at the Conference. This year we had several new opportunities to spread the word: a recruiting table near NAEYC Registration, active participation in the Diversity Celebration, and a seminar and annual meeting that brought new outreach, members, and insights. Our new Resources brochure was introduced, and is already at work throughout the country. Our Seminar, “That’s Not Fair! Cultivating Children’s Activism”, drew an engaged and interested group, and our annual meeting moved us along toward next year. Seminar handouts are available to NAEYC members on our Interest Forum’s Hello.NAEYC.org web page.
Our Peace Awards, pictured below, were well-received and shared. Ellen Junn’s described her as “A champion of equity and inclusion in education”. FrancesCarlson’s as “An advocate for children’s active lives”, and Marilyn Shelton’s as “A teacher educator for peace educators”. Finally shown are two of our Seminar panelists.
Moving Forward: You’re Important to Us!
As P.E.A.C.E. moves forward into 2018, we need your help and your input. Please contact 1peaceeducators@gmail.com if you’d like to become more active and engaged in P.E.A.C.E.’s work, especially if you plan to offer to present a peace education-related session at either NAEYC’s Professional Learning Institute (PLI) in June, or its Annual Conference in Washington, DC November 14-17. The deadline for Annual Conference session proposals is January 10. We can help each other with these proposals, including increasing the likelihood that they will be accepted. We also plan to have a presence at NAEYC’s Public Policy Forum in Washington, DC March 4-6.
