It’s no secret that Tucson is more liberal than many other
cities in the state. Pima county, where Tucson is located (district 7), has a
Cook Partisan voting index of D+15, which means that it leans strongly to the Democrats.
In contrast, district 9, which is represented by Paul Gosar, is the most
conservative district in the state, with a rating of R+16, which is why he always gets at least 60% of the vote in the final elections.
The most conservative large city in the county is Mesa, Arizona.
However, Mayor John Giles just endorsed Kamala Harris at the DNC convention, so
Donald Trump is going to find it very difficult to win in Arizona on election
day.
https://www.cookpolitical.com/cook-pvi/2022-partisan-voting-index/district-map-and-list
I work as a substitute teacher for TUSD (Tucson Unified School
District) , which just announced paid parentally leave.
Some Tucson Unified School District employees could
soon be eligible for 12 weeks of paid parental leave under a new policy being
considered by the governing board.
“As a recently new father, who about a year and a half
ago was constantly logging on to see how many personal days I was burning on my
paternity, this is going to be a really good thing for employees in their
parenthood journey,” TUSD Superintendent Dr.
Gabriel Trujillo said Tuesday at the governing board
meeting just before the first reading of the proposed policy.
The policy is the result of an agreement reached
between TUSD and the Tucson Education Association that started in the
spring, Karla Escamilla, a TUSD spokeswoman, said in
an email.
If adopted, TUSD would
be the first school district in Arizona to offer 12 weeks of paid parental
leave to public school teachers and staff, the teacher’s union said in a news
release.
The policy states employees’
eligibility for paid parental leave in the life events of “birth,
surrogacy, adoption, miscarriage, stillbirth.”
The
board unanimously approved moving forward with the policy.
“This
policy is the product of union educators using their voices and
practicing their power to bring public schools into the modern era by providing
compassionate and evidence-based paid parental leave,” said TEA President Jim
Byrne in the news release.
“Not
only is this policy the right thing to do for TUSD families, but this
policy will help TUSD recruit and retain the highly qualified educators our
students deserve on every campus and in every classroom.”
The
origin of the policy began at the end of 2023 and early 2024 when educators
across TUSD discussed the difficulties of navigating parenthood due to the lack
of paid parental leave, said Carmen Smith-Estrada, one of the organizers
pushing for the policy and a teacher at Davis Bilingual Elementary Magnet
School.
The conversation included
educators who had to leave the district after having babies, educators who had
stayed on after giving birth, as well as educators who didn’t have children
since they didn’t think they could financially support them with no paid time
off, said Smith-Estrada.
“A
lot of people have been forced to leave the district, forced to leave teaching
because they haven’t felt supported,” said Smith-Estrada, stressing the
importance of TEA and what educators can achieve.
The
policy mandates that employees asking for the 12-week paid parental leave need
to be at TUSD for at least a year and includes a “payback provision” in case
the employee doesn’t return to work at the end of the time-off period.
Exceptions to this would be if the employee’s inability to return is due to the
“onset, recurrence or continuation of a serious health condition of the
eligible employee or the child,” the policy reads.
The
tentative agreement between the TEA and TUSD also included $1,500-$2,500 raises
for classroom teachers and certified staff, 1% raises for education support
professionals with an additional stipend for those who qualify and a sick leave
sell-back policy, the TEA release reads.
The policy’s full adoption is
expected to take place in about four weeks.
On a federal level, only 11
states offer paid maternity leave.
According to the state's
Employment and Development Department, Californians are entitled to up to eight weeks of
partial wage replacement to bond with a new child, and this paid family leave
is fully funded by employers.
In Oregon, employees may take up to 12 weeks paid leave
and receive 100% of their weekly wages equal to or less than 65% of the state
average, according to the Center for American Progress. All wages above this
threshold are deducted 50%.
According to a 2021 report by The
Century Foundation, Oregon received the highest rating for its family care
policies.
In addition, Washington also
offers paid parental leave, as so 8 other states, all of which are on the East
Coast. The remainder of the states guarantee unpaid leave to take care of a
newborn, or no leave at all.
The remainder of the states
guarantee unpaid leave to take care of a newborn, or no leave at all.
Vicki Shabo, a senior fellow at
the think tank New America, and a paid leave policy expert, spoke to Newsweek
about the unique state of parental support in the U.S.
According
to Shabo, of the 38 OECD states, The U.S. is the only country that
"that fails to guarantee paid maternity leave to new mothers and one of a
handful that does not guarantee paid parental leave to new fathers."
When asked why the
U.S. was so unique in its family care practices, Shabo said this was due to the
country's "very individualistic, pull-yourself-up-by-your bootstraps
mentality," which is compounded by "business lobby efforts to stop
government regulation and keep taxes low."
"All of this
has stymied federal paid family and medical leave policy efforts," Shabo
added.
While
certain employees may be entitled to up to 12-week of unpaid leave under the
1993 U.S. Family and Medical Leave Act, Shabo said that this only covered those
who work for an employer with over 50 employees in a 75-mile radius, and who
meet "both tenure and hours-worked requirements."
"Just 56% of
U.S. workers are eligible for these job protections," Shabo said.
"Some states offer greater protections, both for unpaid leave and paid
leave, but tens of millions of workers are without any protections at
all."
"Notably, not a single state that
has banned or substantially restricted abortion provides a paid parental leave
guarantee and many actively restrict localities within their states from
offering paid leave,"
Shabo said. "Whereas many of the states that have protected the right to
abortion also offer paid leave and other supports to facilitate families'
economic security and health."
However, Shabo said that calls for
change are growing louder, and that "a broad and large coalition has been
working with members of Congress since 2013 to pass the FAMILY Act (Family
and Medical Insurance Leave Act)."
This would create a national paid
family and medical leave program, "guaranteeing workers up to 12 weeks of
paid leave each year to care for a new child, a seriously ill or injured loved
one, a workers' own serious health issue and care for a military service
member."
Shabo noted that Kamala Harris, now the presumptive Democratic
nominee for the November election, has long supported the
FAMILY Act and, in her 2020 presidential campaign, proposed a plan for
six-months of government-paid family and medical leave.
My wife and I are long past the age where we could have children. We DO have two grandchildren, but there will not be any more, so why is the action of TUSD important to me?
For one thing, it means that there will be fewer unfilled teacher positions, which will lead to smaller class sizes. I’ve been in a few classrooms with more than 30 students, and it is not fun.
In addition, the TUSD policy highlights which political party is actually the one with “family values”- and that will have a strong effect on the November election, even if some of the voters are childless cat ladies.
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