Page 3 - CCEA 2017 Legislative Report

CCEA’s Relationship with NSEA

• CCEA’s bipartisan strategy was in stark contrast to NSEA’s partisanship as well as a lack of
acknowledgement of the significant role the Governor played in this session. After spending over
$1 million in in the 2016 elections, NSEA thought they could take hard positions and simply sway a
couple of Republicans to override the Governor’s vetoes. In the end, there are 37 vetoes the Governor
made and not one was overturned. Getting legislation passed required a Governor’s signature and
equally important around critical issues, bipartisan support. NSEA ignored that and often time took
extreme positions that either made legislation more difficult to pass, i.e. AB320, or not supporting bills
like SB547 which would have guaranteed CCSD paying educators their column movements.
Additionally, NSEA helped leave bad laws like the Achievement School District in tact when NSEA
refused to support a compromise on SB430 which would have provided contract rights to educators and
empowered parents with decision to opt out of a charter school.

• NSEA’s characterization of having Opportunity Scholarships be funded to the tune of $33 million
dollars as somehow a ‘victory against vouchers’ when in fact Opportunity Scholarships, according
to NEA, are another form of vouchers is self-serving at best and disingenuous to all educators at worse.

• Accordingly, during the Legislative Session, CCEA moved its priority agenda items with much success
working with legislative leadership and gaining bipartisan support. We are happy to say that all
educators statewide benefited from our efforts.

• CCEA members provide NSEA $4 million annually in dues. NSEA’s use of those funds to not serve the
interests of CCEA members (its largest local affiliate) led to CCEA’s Executive Board passing a motion
on June 10, 2017 to notify members of “the ineffectiveness and misinformation of NSEA during the
legislative session and express to President Murillo the non-confidence of his team and him in the
attacks against CCEA, its members and leadership.”

Prior to the kickoff of the session educators had a very

specific agenda that predated the 2016 election cycle and was the
basis for our candidate endorsement process. We worked to get
Jason Frierson elected and for him to assume the Assembly
Speaker position. Once our election efforts paid off at the state
level, the CCEA Executive Board and leadership team met with
newly elected legislative leadership to finalize and lay the
groundwork for our legislative agenda, determine bill sponsors,
and develop suggested bill language. The CCEA leadership team
went beyond presenting conceptual ideas. Documents were
developed for legislative leadership that specifically outlined
which part of the Nevada Revised Statute needed to be amended
and most importantly why the changes were necessary. We
continued to work with legislators and with their direction, the
Legislative Council Bureau to craft the bill language for our
priorities.

During the time leading up to the session, the CCEA Lobby Team reviewed and began tracking hundreds of Bill
Draft Requests to determine their relevancy. We then analyzed the BDRs as bill language was available. If the
bill was an education issue related to our priorities or an issue that impacted membership or public education
funding, the bill was tracked throughout the 120 day period. We also met with legislators again, many newly
elected, about CCEA’s agenda just prior to the session. The CCEA Lobby Team testified on over 50 bills.

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