Everyone who works in public education deserves the same things. Respect for their contribution to the care and education of our students. Fair compensation for their work, including affordable health care. Safe working conditions.

Unfortunately, most education support professionals (ESPs) don’t get enough of any of those.

All ESPs deserve pay and benefits to sustain a family, safe work environments and voice and respect on the job.

I'm writing to urge you to pass the following proposals benefiting these professionals:

- Require school districts and charter schools to pay their ESPs at least $25 an hour. Every school employee should have the right to spend time at home with her or his own children, without working two or three extra jobs to survive.
- Ensure our hourly school workers are eligible for unemployment.
- Help educators and all Minnesotans get high quality, affordable health care.
- Provide up to 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave for all workers through a payroll deduction and employer tax.
- Protect workers from wage theft and crack down on employers who circumvent wage and benefit standards and laws, don’t pay overtime, etc.
- Establish reporting and transparency requirements to identify issues of concern for ESPs on the worksite. This could include staffing levels, pay scale, safety, fair scheduling, etc.
- Require paraprofessionals who work directly with students to receive 16 hours of paid training prior to the beginning of each school year.

Thank you!