ANNOUNCEMENTS

FROM SUE SHAW, REPEAL

It's spring and even though in Maine that means mud and gale force winds, green tips of daffodils are showing and the pussy willows are out! And spring means grass and since we are all grassroots activists, I guess there is a connection there somewhere!
I am sending this out to promote a "Grassroots Congressional Call-in Week".
They say that we all travel in circles and I guess that is true, because here we are back where we started so many years ago! Grassroots activists, trying to instigate a change and convince the large national organizations that we mean business and are NOT going to give up!
Soon Congress will be on their "spring break" - when they return, let's astound them with the number of calls and e-mail contacts that they receive concerning the Offsets! You can call any congressional office by dialing 1-866-237-8670.  In 15 minutes you can call a dozen offices! You needn't be too wordy, just something like:

Please give your considerable support to HR 82 (or S 206). Pressing for immediate ACTION on this bill, "The Social Security Fairness Act of 2007", would be a service to teachers, emergency responders, state workers, and many more who are losing earned retirement benefits to the GPO/WEP. Thank you.

If you are sending a written message, include a personal story!
After you have called Congress, send a e-mail to the NEA and ask that they reconsider their plan to NOT hold any call-in or lobby days related to the GPO/WEP battle! If they hear from enough of us (write even if you aren't a member!) perhaps they will realize how disappointed we all are over this!
Please help spread the word--send these fliers out to all of your contacts - copy a few and take them to your work-place and post them anywhere you can think of from fire and police stations to grocery stores and Laundromats!
We CAN do this! We did it before!
Thanks for all you do--
Sue

"Grassroots Activists"
 

Ask for ACTION!

Call Congress NOW to ask for action on HR82 & S206
The Social Security Fairness Act of 2007
Make April 22-28 a Grassroots Call-in (or email) Week!
Call your Congressional Delegation, PLUS any or all of the Congressional leaders listed below.
Ask for action on the bills to repeal the SS Offsets, HR82 & S206.
To call any congressional office:

                 1-866-327-8670

To find contact information for all of Congress plus info on bills: www.congress.gov

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Also: Contact the National Education Association and ask for action NOW on the Offset fight:
President Reg Weaver = Rweaver@nea.org
Executive Director John Wilson = jwilson@nea.org

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Improve Access to College for Working and Parenting Students

Take Action!

Our federal financial aid system is designed with the traditional college student in mind, yet part-time and nontraditional students are now the norm on college campuses, and such students are disproportionately women. These students more frequently must balance work, school, and family commitments but have limited access to financial aid.

Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ) will soon be introducing the Part-Time Student Assistance Act, which would allow students to exempt more of their income from student aid calculations, provide more on-campus child care, allow for year-round Pell grants, and create a part-time assistance pilot program to develop comprehensive programming aimed at enrolling and graduating part-time students.
AAUW strongly supports this legislation, because it takes important steps towards providing nontraditional students greater access to higher education.
Nontraditional students "those who are part-time, working, older, or parenting” face unique challenges as they seek to finance a college education. In light of the increasing number of nontraditional and parenting students, legislation must create programs that help these students enter college, stay in college, and earn a degree.
Take Action!
To urge your representative to support increased access to higher education for working and parenting students, just click on the Take Action link in the upper left corner, or copy and paste the following URL into your Internet browser, then follow the instructions to send a message to your representative:

http://capwiz.com/aauw/issues/alert/?alertid=9649351&queueid=[capwiz:queue_id]