Legislative CALL TO ACTION
from Noelle Ellerson Ng!
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AESA Members,
Thank you for your continued effort to galvanize support for school facilities. The good news is that we have some positive momentum in the House—we are expected to see at least $75 billion for school facilities later this week. The problem remains in the Senate where there is less interest and passion for supporting school facilities. Fortunately, this week a new report from the 21st Century School Fund was released that details how massive underinvestment in education facilities is occurring in each state.
Please dig into the comprehensive state profiles in this report and see how underfunded your school facilities are currently in these files:
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Please Contact Your Senators
We are also asking that when it comes to the K12 dollars, the eligible entities include ESAs that provide direct instruction to students in the ESA facilities. After you read the report, it would be TERRIFIC if you could send a template email to your Democrat Senators asking them to support $130 billion in school infrastructure funding to be included in the reconciliation package. Here is the sample email:
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Thank you!
Noelle Ellerson Ng
Associate Executive Director, Advocacy & Governance
AASA, The School Superintendents Association
nellerson@aasa.org
(C) 703-774-6935
Twitter: @Noellerson
#LovePublicEducation
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Biden Vaccine Plan & Education Implications |
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The Biden Administration's plan does the following:
- Requires staff of Head Start programs, DOD schools, Bureau of Indian Education schools to be vaccinated.
- Calls on all states to adopt vaccine mandates for all school employees.
- Creates a new grant program, Project SAFE (Supporting America’s Families and Educators), to restore funding withheld by state leaders who oppose efforts like mask requirements, virtual learning, etc. The funding can also be used to backfill salaries for district leaders who are implementing masking, etc.
- Providing new resources so students and school staff can be tested regularly and beefing up vaccine testing processes/systems.
- Providing every resource to the FDA to support review of applications for vaccines for <12.
Here’s what we know so far about how it impacts states/districts directly:
While the president’s vaccine mandate does not apply broadly to all schools, the Biden Administration will issue a rule through the Department of Labor that will apply to the 26 states with OSHA plans (including TN, SC, AZ, KY, and VA). Teachers in these states will have to be vaccinated OR submit to weekly testing. To check on your state’s OSHA plan, please refer to the map below.
There is no authority to mandate vaccines for children at the federal level, so the administration is strongly encouraging states/districts to adopt COVID vaccine mandates for students 12 and over.
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AESA All-Member
Community Informational Webinar
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Thursday, September 23
4:00 - 5:00 PM ET
Associated with
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Webinar Agenda:
- What is the AESA Community?
- Meet the Community group leaders.
- Discuss in breakout rooms how the Community can be best utilized.
- Report out from the discussion.
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Western Regional Community
If you are a member of the AESA Western Region, (Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming) then this community group is for you!
Join us as we explore topics that are of special interest to the western states! Be sure to join our virtual meeting on October 21 at 2:30 MST, 1:30 PST! We look forward to seeing you soon!
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PlanMember Legislative Update
For school districts and non-profit employers.
In the Summer 2021 edition of the PlanMember Legislative Update, industry-leading 403(b)/457(b) consultant Ellie Lowder reviews IRS Revenue Ruling 2021-30 which provides new guidance concerning the retirement plan error self-correction programs, as well as discusses new plan design ideas, plan sponsor student loan payment assistance, and more.
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Professional Learning Opportunities |
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Learn how artificial intelligence (AI) can impact your ESA
Leverage AI to better serve your customers! Join us for Principles of AI for ESAs to learn how!
This virtual conference features Dr. Duncan Simester, MIT, Sloan School of Business. Join us on the following dates:
October 19, 21, 26, 28
2-4 PM ET
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NEW! AI Mentoring Program
AESA is offering a mentoring program for a small number of ESAs willing to begin AI-based projects. The mentoring will be provided by Dr. Duncan Simester and the first phase of the mentoring will focus on:
- project selection;
- identification of resources required for one or more pilot projects.
This first phase of the mentoring program is expected to last approximately three months and will include at least three sessions. In these sessions, your organization will propose three projects and then use the feedback provided by Duncan to refine these proposals. By the end of the program, each participating ESA should have at least one project ready for execution, together with additional projects in their project selection pipeline.
We anticipate that each ESA will also observe and learn from the mentoring sessions with at least one other ESA. Hearing the feedback from multiple teams will help each ESA learn how to identify, filter, and refine AI project ideas.
Program Goals
- Teach ESAs how to identify, filter, and refine AI project ideas.
- Identify at least one project that is ready for execution.
- Build a pipeline of ideas for future projects.
- Review AI resource requirements and investigate options for sourcing additional capabilities (where required).
- Build a community of ESAs actively engaged in AI projects.
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Registration is OPEN for
these Upcoming AESA Annual Events
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AESA Annual Conference
December 1-4, 2021
Marriott Marquis
Houston, TX
Please join us in Houston, Texas for AESA's 36th Annual Conference! In addition to over 90 educational sessions to choose from, your registration includes some perennial conference favorites. This conference is the premier professional learning and national networking event for all ESA staff.
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