Dear MRTA Members:

HOUSE OMNIBUS EDUCATION BILL HCS/HB 1740

The House Rules Committee failed to take up and consider HCS/HB 1740 (Scott Dieckhaus) at its meeting February 28.  The House Rules Committee is a gatekeeper committee that determines whether a bill approved by the committee of origin should be placed on the calendar.  The bill cannot be taken up for floor action until taken up and approved by the Rules Committee.  No hearing on the bill is scheduled at this time.  Majority caucus members have been called into several lengthy caucus meetings this week where the bill has been discussed extensively, as support for the bill is a caucus position and they are seeing a lot of opposition from educators including retirees.

MRTA strongly opposes the tenure repeal, charter school expansion, virtual school open enrollment and tax credit-style voucher portions of the bill.

IF you have not done so yet, there is still time to put the brakes on this legislation.  Please e-mail or call your State Representative and ask them to oppose HCS/HB 1740. THANK YOU to those who have done so as requested by February 28th. IT IS NOT TOO LATE!

It is our hope the legislation will not come out of the Rules Committee because of intense opposition from educators including MRTA retirees.

Still do not know who your State Representative is?  Go to WWW.MRTA.ORG and type your zip code in the blue box that says "WRITE YOUR LEGISLATORS" button, then it will ask for your home address.

Please stay tuned as another very bad piece of legislation was filed yesterday affecting your COLA at PSRS/PEERS. More to come.

THANK YOU for being counted as a member of MRTA.

MRTA works to protect your retirement benefits and to enhance the quality of life for ALL Missouri education retirees - present and future.

 Sincerely yours,

Jim Kreider 
MRTA Executive Director
mrtadirectorkreider@mrta.org
1-877-366-6782