Author: Pat DeWitt

AAUW Public Policy       January 2017 Newsletter, Jacksonville Branch        Carolyn Smith, Public Policy

AAUW National Motto: IT’S MY VOTE: I WILL BE HEARD.

Be heard by your Florida and US Congressional legislators: call, e-mail, writing, and/or use Two-Minute Activist at aauw.org/issues.

Note: because of redistricting, our US and FL districts have changed. If not sure who your representatives are, call the person representing the district number on your voters card, or Google US and FL legislators. These are the new legislators for districts where respective Branch members live:

US District 4, John Rutherford (currently 888-225-2501)

US District 5, Al Lawson (currently 202-225-0123)

FL Senate 4 Aaron Bean (757-5039)

FL Senate 5 Rob Bradley (278-2085)

FL Senate 6 Audrey Gibson (359-2553)

FL Senate 7 Travis Hutson (446-7610)

FL House 11 Cord Byrd (242-3495)

FL House 13 Tracie Davis (353-2180)

FL House 18 Tracie Cummings (278-5761)

Note: The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that non-defense appropriations in the new Congress will be 3.2% of gross domestic production (GDP), just 0.1% above lowest level on record, going back to 1962.  This is one effect of sequestration (automatic cuts) in 2013 and the failure of Congress to enact renewed appropriations.

Cuts in allocation for 2017 Senate Subcommittees involving issues of importance to AAUW:  Labor and Education, cut -0.2%; interior and environment, -0.4%; agriculture (food stamps, etc.), -1.2%. Fortunately for women in the military, military appropriations +4.7%

Note: The new 115^th Congress may or may not continue work on bills proposed in the 114^th Congress, but even if we do not have a title or number of a bill, we have the issues. Please urge the representatives listed above to work for issues affecting women:

*salary equity; family leave policies; the best K-12 preparation for college and the work force; college affordability; procedures for safety from assault on campus and military bases; access to STEM courses and careers. See our aauw.org/issues, especially these from the 114^th:

*S. 534. Prohibits funds from being used for so-called Dreamers (AAUW does not support this bill because of its effect on Dreamers, high school students who have grown up here but who were brought here illegally when very young).

*S.1177, re-authorization Elementary and Secondary Act (No Child Left Behind) – AAUW wants more money for public, not charter, schools, and more STEM resources and equity.

*House WPS Act: The 114^th House passed the Women, Peace and Security Act in 2016. Urge senators in the 115^th Congress to do the same. Research shows that when women are involved in peace negotiations and conflict resolutions, agreements are 20% more likely to be reached. The WPS Act ensures that women are involved in foreign policy making and it also sets up training modules for resolving conflict.

SAVE THE DATE:   Equal Pay for Equal Work Day, Tues. March 14, 2017-noon

Fourth Floor Rotunda, In Front of Senate Chamber

Sponsored by Senator Linda Stewart, Representative Lori Berman, and House Democratic Leader Janet Cruz

CALLS TO ACTION (telephone, or aauw.org/ issues/ two-minute activist):

1. Paycheck Fairness Act: Call Sen. Nelson & Rubio and US House Representative for YES vote.

Again and yet again AAUW urges calls for support of this act, reintroduced in the 114^th Congress by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and, as earlier, Sen Barbara Mikulski (D-Md).

2. FAMILY ACT (Family and Medical Insurance Leave): Call US Rep. Crenshaw and Brown for YES.

     This act would create a national family leave insurance program giving eligible employees up to 12 weeks of paid leave funded by employee and employer contributions.

3. GEEA (Patsy T. Mink Ender Equity in Education Act): Call Nelson, Rubio, and US House for YES.           GEEA (S.3147 / H. R. 5682) would strengthen Title IX and honor Title IX’s founder, Patsy Mink (D-HI, 1970’s) by establishing an Office of Gender Equity in the US Dept. of Ed., to coordinate Title IX training programs, grants, and local and state entities supporting gender equity program.
4. Voting Rights Advancement Act (S.1659 / H.R. 2867): Call Nelson, Rubio, US House for YES.

This act would amend the Supreme Court’s 2013 decision in Shelby v. Holder to strike out section 4b of the Voting Right Act of 1965, a section that required states with a history of discrimination to get clearance by the US Justice Dept. before making changes in voting procedures. The Voting Rights Advancement Act would restore section 4b, thus ensuring that those affected by loss of section 4b (many minority groups and 18-30 year olds) would be secure in getting the right to vote.

5. Judicial Nominations: Call Sen. Nelson & Rubio for YES
6. Federal Funding Accountability for Sexual Harassers Act: Call Congressional members for YES.

     This act would require universities and colleges to report to the US Dept. of Education any substantiated reports of sexual abuse by professors in STEM fields. The act was introduced by Jackie Speier (D-CA) at a press conference Thurs. Sept. 22. In attendance, AAUW’s Senior Government Relations Manager Anne Hedgepeth, who summarized AAUW’s research on sexual abuse in schools and colleges.

7. Computer Science for All Act: Call Congressional members for Yes.

       This AAUW-supported act, introduced by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), would authorized $250 million in grants over five years to schools and colleges for computer education.

8. The Perkins Act: Call Sen. Nelson and Rubio for YES

The Perkins Act (the Perkins Career and Technical Act) was reauthorized by the US House during the week of Sept. 21, 2016. It has been held up in the Senate by provisions opposed by AAUW. These provisions would limit the Secretary of Education’s power in ensuring that Perkins funds would be used in career and technical programs offering equity in resources and gender protections. A Yes vote would ensure that Perkins funds would be used to help girls get training in high-wage and high-demand jobs.

INFORMATION:

Since 1881, AAUW has supported women through fellowships, grants, research, and advocacy. So far, just through Oct. 2016:

1. Published and distributed copies of Barriers and Bias: The Status of Women in Leadership Roles (an examination of causes of women’s underrepresentation and ways of improve status of women as leaders.
2. Distributed $3.7 million in fellowships and grants.
3. Launched Work Smart workshops in Boston, DC, Tempe, Long Beach, San Diego, San Jose.
4. Supported STEM programs for 3, 643 middle school girls.

I am honored to be your new president in this momentous year 2016. Ninety-six years after the ratification of the 19^th Amendment, one of the two major political parties has nominated the first woman to become president of this great country of ours (finally). This is the time for us to stand up with our sisters to recognize the hard work of the women and men who led the successful suffrage movement by keeping the polls accessible to everyone and ensuring all women are registered and educated on all issues.

Let us take advantage of our Public Policy Impact Grant in our Branches by making certain that all women are registered to vote.  Elections matter!  Let us make certain that all women are educated on issue-based choices. We will continue to fight for fair pay and against discrimination. Your vote is your voice.  Be Heard!

We are pleased with another dynamic Tech Trek STEM Camp held this year at Palm Beach State College.  We congratulate all of you for your caring support in making this possible this year for 60 young girls entering 8^th grade to attend. Our campers described this as an “awesome” experience.  We’re hoping that you have STEM as part of your operating budget.  It takes $1000 to send a girl to camp.

Our upcoming Leadership Conference will be held at the Hyatt Regency in Sarasota Florida, beginning on Sunday, April 2^nd through Monday noon April 3^rd. This as you realize is a slight change for us, but I believe that starting early we should be able to plan accordingly. At this time of year, in the midst of tourist season, we are able to negotiate better hotel rates and accommodations by moving our conference to beginning on Sunday.  Let’s be open to this and try it!  Planning is underway.  You won’t want to miss this!

Each month one of your State Board Directors will be featured in “STEP WITH ME” to share pertinent information with you and to let you know that we are here for you.  This is an exciting time and we enthusiastically embrace the opportunities available to us as we continue to fulfill our mission of advancing equity to women and girls.  Working together we are stronger.

By Patricia DeWitt, Florida State Director for Public Policy

In a one member one vote canvass over the summer, Florida AAUW members voted to accept the national AAUW Public Policy Program as the public policy program for the state. I urge all AAUW members to read and reflect on this and download the brochure at http://www.aauw.org/resource/principles-and-priorities/.  Several of its principles are currently being challenged to a degree we haven’t seen in thirty years. “Advocacy” is the first term in our list of ways in which we promote equity for women and girls. This means having the courage to speak out for our Public Policy outside of our own groups of “like-minded women”.

The goals of our Impact Grant include Get Out the Vote and advocating for pay equity. Three branches who had indicated support when we were applying for the Impact Grant will be receiving funds for their projects in support of these goals. We will also be holding our annual Lobby Days in Tallahassee and possibly a special rally—look for more information soon.

Get Out the Vote, or GOTV, is the most pressing goal right now with national, state, and local elections coming soon. Lake/Sumter, Vero Beach, Winter Park, University of South Florida, and Flagler County have held GOTV events, and it’s not too late to hold a tabling event at a local college, a farmer’s market (the weather is getting nicer!), or even a mall. Put out a table and hand out AAUW materials such as the AAUW Action Fund Voter Issue Guide at http://www.aauw.org/resource/aauw-voter-issue-guide/, or the Florida-specific guide on the Senate election which you can find at http://bit.ly/2d48qal. This activity does not constitute endorsing a particular candidate, since it is focused on AAUW’s priority issues.

It’s not too late to get people to register to vote. Florida’s deadline is October 11, 2016. One can fill in an application online at http://bit.ly/1MWxvtO and mail it to the County Supervisor of Elections or take it to one of several locations including a public library. There are many ways to vote including early voting at a polling place and voting by mail. Check the website above.

Finally, all members and branches are urged to use their social media contacts to spread the word that people need to get out and vote, and ask them to consider AAUW issues when voting. I will be sending out suggestions on the AAUW Action Network. Please do try to make sure all your members are subscribed!

AAUW Public Policy by Carolyn Smith

CALLS TO ACTION (telephone, or http://www.aauw.org/what-we-do/public-policy/two-minute-activist/):

1. Paycheck Fairness Act: Call Sen. Nelson & Rubio and US House Representative for YES vote.

Again and yet again AAUW urges calls for support of this act, reintroduced in the 114^th Congress by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and, as earlier, Sen Barbara Mikulski (D-Md).

2. FAMILY ACT (Family and Medical Insurance Leave): Call US Rep. Crenshaw and Brown for YES.

     This act would create a national family leave insurance program giving eligible employees up to 12 weeks of paid leave funded by employee and employer contributions.

3. GEEA (Patsy T. Mink Gender Equity in Education Act): Call Nelson, Rubio, and US House for YES.               

    GEEA  (S.3147 / H. R. 5682) would strengthen Title IX and honor Title IX’s founder, Patsy Mink (D-HI, 1970’s) by establishing an Office of Gender Equity in the US Dept. of Ed., to coordinate Title IX training programs, grants, and local and state entities supporting gender equity program.

4. Voting Rights Advancement Act (S.1659 / H.R. 2867): Call Nelson, Rubio, US House for YES.

This act would amend the Supreme Court’s 2013 decision in Shelby v. Holder to strike out section 4b of the Voting Right Act of 1965, a section that required states with a history of discrimination to get clearance by the US Justice Dept. before making changes in voting procedures. The Voting Rights Advancement Act would restore section 4b, thus ensuring that those affected by loss of section 4b (many minority groups and 18-30 year olds) would be secure in getting the right to vote.

5. Judicial Nominations: Call Sen. Nelson & Rubio for YES
6. Federal Funding Accountability for Sexual Harassers Act: Call Congressional members for YES.

     This act would require universities and colleges to report to the US Dept. of Education any substantiated reports of sexual abuse by professors in STEM fields. The act was introduced by Jackie Speier (D-CA) at a press conference Thurs. Sept. 22. In attendance, AAUW’s Senior Government Relations Manager Anne Hedgepeth, who summarized AAUW’s recent research on sexual abuse in schools and colleges.

7. Computer Science for All Act: Call Congressional members for Yes.

       This AAUW-supported act, introduced by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), would authorized $250 million in grants over five years to schools and colleges for computer education.

8. The Perkins Act: Call Sen. Nelson and Rubio for YES

The Perkins Act (the Perkins Career and Technical Act) was reauthorized by the US House during the week of Sept. 21, 2016. It has been held up in the Senate by provisions opposed by AAUW. These provisions would limit the Secretary of Education’s power in ensuring that Perkins funds would be used in career and technical programs offering equity in resources and gender protections. A Yes vote would ensure that Perkins funds would be used to help girls get training in high-wage and high-demand jobs.

INFORMATION

1. AAUW Celebrated National Voter Registration Day, Sept. 28.  Get out the Vote.
2. AAUW celebrated the 100^th anniversary of the National Park Service, especially its recent inclusion of the Belmont-Paul Home as a National Monument celebrating the work of Alice Paul and others in the suffrage movement of the 1910s and 1920s. Alva Vanderbilt Belmont was an ardent supporter and provided funds to renovate the old Sewell home  as the headquarters of the National Women’s Party, formed by Alice Paul and supported by Belmont to the strengthen the suffrage movement, get the 19^th amendment passed, and continue to work of ensuring that women be able to vote.

CALLS TO ACTION

Reminder: It’s My Vote: I will be Heard!

Update your registration and remind others to register (or check registration) in time for upcoming primaries and November election. (Editor’s note: it is too late to register for the August 30 primary for the first time, but you can update your information)

In Florida, the August primary is August 20-27, 2016. The actual primary election is Tues. Aug. 30. Check the place of your precinct.

In Duval, the August 30, 2106 primary is both closed and open:

Closed in choice of legislative candidates (to vote for candidates, one must be registered as either Republican or Democrat; if there is only one of each, each is automatically elected).

Open for the two amendments and districts that have school board members up for election. These ballot measures:

1. Extending the Better Jacksonville tax so that the pension plan for police and firefighters can be better funded.
2. FL Constitutional No. 4, officially entitled Solar Devices or Renewable Energy Source Devices; Exemptions from Certain Taxation and Assessment (entitled by supporting groups as The Consumers for Smart Solar Amendment).

This amendment is supported by several non-profit groups, including the NAACP and the National Congress of Black Women, Inc. (NCBW).  They argued in an amicus brief before the Florida Supreme Court in June 2015 that this amendment is more beneficial to small business and individual home owners and renters than a solar amendment that will appear on the November ballot (it will be FL Constitutional No. 1, supported by utility companies and interests; its official title is Rights of Electricity Consumers Regarding Solar Energy Choice, but its supporters call it the Floridians for Solar Choice Amendment).

Urge members of Congress to pass the Equality Act (H.R. 3185; S. 1858).

 This bill would require 32 states to form and/or amplify a Human Rights Ordinance that would include the LGBT community.

Reminder: Urge Sens. Nelson and Rubio to oppose any Senate school bill that is like H. R. 4901.

AAUW has long opposed H. R. 4901 because it not only transfers public money in the form of vouchers to private and religious schools; it also frees these schools from Title IX gender, racial, ethnic, and sexual orientation protections. Amendments to restore these protections were offered by several representatives, but each failed, allowing H. R. 4901 to pass as written by voucher supporters. Evidence in a 2010 Dept. of Ed. report showed no gains in student achievement in most voucher schools.

INFORMATION

AAUW’s Newest Research: Barriers and Bias: The Status of Women in Leadership.

A study of why women are very under-represented in leadership roles in spite of making up 50% of the current workplace. Of the CEO’s of the S&P 500, only 5% are women; on 6 of the 50 governors are women; only 20% of K-12 superintendents are women.

AAUW applauds OFCLP”s Executive Order 11246

Executive Order 11246 updates that executive order passed 40 years ago. The update prohibits pay discrimination and sexual harassment, and it implements leave times for pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions. Up to 65 million employees will be covered.

Jacksonville branch members attended two significant events related to issues of great interest to AAUW. The first, on May 17, was the Women’s Center of Jacksonville’s “Women, Words & Wisdom” with Melissa Ross, host and producer of WJCT’s First Coast Connect, and Recognition of 10 Unsung Sheroes. Ms. Ross spoke on the topic “The Road to True Gender Equality: Achievements and Challenges in the 21^st Century”. It was exciting to hear her call for women and girls to be given permission to exhibit the full range of human qualities, including holding power and having full agency over our own bodies. The movement for salary equity and transparency needs to gain ground. She called for an enlarged definition of what it means to be a man, creating a culture where men feel comfortable with such accommodations as flextime and taking on family responsibilities. Pat DeWitt and Marjorie Broward attended.

On June 2, the Florida Times-Union presented the first annual EVE Women’s Summit to complement their traditional EVE Awards. This was an interactive event moderated by Cynthia Bioteau, FSCJ President, featuring both speakers and an opportunity for table discussion. The overall theme was women’s leadership, pursued by Donna Orender (women’s leadership scoreboard), Danielle Snyder and Jodie Snyder Morel (young women entrepreneurs), and an entrepreneurship panel composed of Pat Blanchard, Ita Ekpoudoum, Dane Gray, and Kate Stewart. Ideas to promote women’s leadership included actively recruiting women to run for office and creating a directory of women qualified to serve on corporate boards. We need to include men as allies in our organizations. Susan Cornehl, Carolyn Smith, Marjorie Broward and Pat DeWitt attended (pictured above: Marjorie, Pat, Cynthia Bioteau, Susan.)

Our November speaker is Sabrina Kinslow, Head of JAGirl$ since February 2015, after serving as Program Manager 2013-15. She is a graduate of FSU, and her work since graduation in various social service organizations has led her to be informed about the mission and goal of JAGirl$, helping girls grades 6-12 in developing  financial literacy, career tracks in finance, and awareness of the gender gap in pay.  Learn more about JAGirl$, a part of Junior Achievement, at http://bit.ly/1MKFAzR.

Meet at San Jose Country Club for this program on Saturday, Nov. 21: 11:30 social time and 12:00 luncheon. Lunch cost is $22. Contact Kathy VanderVliet at KathyVan@comcast.net for reservations.

Susan Cornehl and Pat DeWitt attended National Convention along with state board members Susan Berlin and Kamala Anandam.