Messages to the Membership-Pres. Pat Markunas: MSCA

February 26, 2001

On Thursday, February 22nd, I represented the MSCA at public hearings on education funding for the FY 2002 state budget, chaired by Representative David Flynn (D-Bridgewater) and held at Bridgewater State College. Eight members of the subcommittee on education of the House Ways and Means Committee were in attendance, as was newly appointed W&M Chairman John Rogers.

Bridgewater State College President Adrian Tinsley and Mass Art College President Catherine Sloan both testified about the importance of improving faculty salaries, among other priorities for the public state colleges. Chancellor Judith Gill testified that the governor would submit the funding package for the state college faculty/librarian contract, once it has been settled, and asked for the Legislature's support once that has occurred. I testified to both of these issues, in addition to prepared remarks about the need for an independent review of the reliability and validity of the Massachusetts Educator Certification Test. These remarks will be made available on the MSCA webpage.

At the end of my testimony, Representative Michael Rodrigues asked me to convey a message to the MSCA membership: that the Legislature has always honored collective bargaining commitments with state employee unions, and that we could count on the Legislature's support in funding our three-year agreement once it is settled. On your behalf, I thanked the committee for the recent funding of our one-year extension.

In the afternoon, I attended a meeting of the Bridgewater Chapter, held to discuss local issues of importance. I thank Bridgewater Chapter President Jean Stonehouse for the opportunity to attend this meeting, and I look forward to meeting with the Framingham Chapter on March 5th. I hope to arrange meetings with other chapters this semester as well.

I will represent the MSCA at the annual meeting of the National Council on Higher Education (the higher education caucus within NEA) in San Diego from March 1st to March 4th and will report to you on events at this meeting next week.

Pat Markunas
MSCA President

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