Legislature News and Links
Monitor progress on education issuesLegislative Information
Arbitration Reports Released
SB 213 Waive Governmental Immunity for Acts of School Violence
Colorado General Assembly (Legislature’s web site)
The Legislative Process: How a bill is passed
CEA Bill Summary – The Bill Summary resides in the Member section of the CEA site www.coloradoea.org . Members may log into the Members section (home page, top right side, last channel tab) and create an account. You will find the Bill Summary in the Member Updates section where it is updated frequently during the session with a summary of each bill CEA follows, our position on each bill, and the status of the bill in the Legislature.
In Congress
NEA’s Legislative Action Center
Here you can point, click, and speak out for children and public education. You can join a national network of educators, get email alerts about issues that impact students and education employees, and learn of opportunities to lobby Congress on public education issues.
Social Security Offsets (GPO and WEP)
Association members in Colorado, along with members in 11 other states, are the only public school employees in the nation who do not pay into Social Security, but rely on their state pension plan (PERA). However, CEA members may have Social Security benefits from other employment or from their spouses and may be affected by GPO (Government Pension Offset) and WEP (Windfall Elimination Provision). That’s why these two Social Security offsets matter to us in Colorado – and why we support efforts in Congress to repeal both GPO and WEP.
Because GPO and WEB are not widely known or understood, the pension reductions they mandate may come as a surprise when affected individuals apply for the benefits they anticipated in their retirement planning. The Government Pension Offset (GPO) reduces an individual’s Social Security survivor benefits, available to a person whose deceased spouse had earned Social Security benefits, by an amount equal to two-thirds of his or her public pension. The Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) changes the formula used to figure benefit amounts, reducing an individual’s own Social Security benefits earned while working in a job covered by Social Security.
Colorado U.S. Reps. Diana DeGette, Jared Polis, John Salazar, and Betsy Markey support the current Association-backed legislation. Reps. Ed Perlmutter, Mike Coffman, and Doug Lamborn do not. Colorado’s U.S. Senators, Michael Bennet and Mark Udall, have not indicated that they intend to vote for the repeal of GPO and WEP.
Our Association also opposes mandatory Social Security coverage and opposes the privatization of Social Security.Learn more about our Association’s efforts to overturn the Social Security Offsets GPO and WEP.
Other National Education Policy Issues
Association information on other national issues affecting public education may be found here.
NEA’s Federal Education Policy Guide