We hope that in the conference committee the principle that all public school employees should benefit will be restored to the bill, and a greater effort will be made to address dependent coverage, something that is necessary for us to be competitive with the private sector. TSTA has spent the last two years promoting the concept of statewide health insurance with legislators, school employees, community leaders, and the general public. Polls show that 85 percent of all Texans now support state paid health insurance. Now is the time to pass a quality bill that will have a significant impact on the quality of our schools. This is not the time for timid leadership.
Timid actions produce timid results.
The only way we can recruit and retain the most qualified people to teach our children is to provide financial benefits and health care. In order to take care of our children we first have to take care of their teachers.