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Speak up for children and families
Your help is needed to get the message to state leaders
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We urge you to take the following actions immediately:
1) Call
your Assemblymember, State Senator and the Governor today to tell them to
protect funding for education and critical services for children and families.
Find your Legislators
Contact the Governor
Sample
message:
My
name is (your name) from (name of your city). My children attend (names
of your childrens' schools), and I urge (Senator X, Assembly member X, the
Governor) to protect funding for education by not suspending Proposition 98.
We
must also protect critical programs for children and families such
as Healthy
Families, CalWORKs and Cal Grants. I strongly believe that we must invest in
our children to protect their future and the future of our state.
2) Send
letters to the editor at your local newspaper about what is happening in your
school as a result of the devastating statewide cuts to education.
For more information on how to submit a letter to the
editor and a listing of local newspapers contacts, please visit the "Letters to
the Editor" tab on the Education Coalition's "Protect Our Students" website, which you can reach by clicking here.
Don't forget to check your local newspaper for
word-count limits, and please remember to include your name, home address and
phone number!
Background
State budget negotiations continue in Sacramento, and
education and children's services continue to face the threat of
drastic cuts.
Recently, the Governor proposed suspending Proposition 98, the voter-approved
Constitutional funding guarantee for K-12 education and community colleges. California State PTA opposes suspending the funding
guarantee.
The Governor's proposal would not only result in even deeper
cuts to education in 2009-10, but would lower that funding guarantee in future
years. Our students in communities throughout California are already
suffering from the impact of billions of dollars in state budget cuts that have
been enacted.
We also continue to
strongly oppose the proposed elimination or deep cuts to vital programs for
children, families and students such as CalWORKs, Healthy Families and Cal
Grants. These
programs serve hundreds of thousands of children and students. It is shameful
that any state leader in 2009 would even consider eliminating them, especially
when our state receives matching dollars from the federal government for
operating some of them.
The Governor and legislators say the
state budget crisis is so bad that we have no choice but to severely cut
education and health and welfare services for kids.
They are wrong!
A budget is a reflection of our values.
We value the future of our children and the future of California - and we
cannot support any budget plan that drastically shortchanges our children or our
future.
California
State PTA:
- Supports
a balanced approach to solving the state budget deficit, one that includes some
additional revenues to prevent even deeper cuts to children's education
programs and services.
- Opposes
the Governor's proposal to suspend Proposition 98.
- Supports
full funding for Healthy Families, CalWORKs and Cal Grants - essential programs
that promote the health and well-being of children, students and families in
California.
To read the California Budget Project's July 2 analysis of the Governor's budget proposals, click here.
For
more information, go to www.capta.org.
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