The Answer - A blog about Education, Preparation, and Commitment.

Next Steps of Action Against Cuts in Charter School Funding

July 02, 2010 by Jeremy Jones

YES Prep Supporters:

Thank you for taking action against the Obey Supplemental Appropriations Bill that cut funding for charter schools.Unfortunately, the Amendment passed in the House last night, 239-182. We knew defeating this in the House was a huge hurdle, but we made a fantastic showing and stood strong for education reform. Now, our fight moves to the Senate. Don’t stop taking action! Please call your Senators today and tell them to voteNO on the Obey Supplemental Appropriations Bill that cuts funding for charter schools!

We need you to do THREE THINGS TODAY:

1. Call the Congressional Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask them to connect you with one of your Senator’s office.
2. Tell your Senator that you opposeObey Supplemental Appropriations Bill and want to speak with the person responsible for this issue.
3. Repeat steps 1 & 2 with your other Senator.
4. Take action online and ask others to take action in support of charters by sending an online message to Congress, here(at www.publiccharters.org)
5. Keep forwarding this to your friends, families, and networks and have them take action too!

Please share the following points when speaking with your Senator’s office:
You oppose the Obey Supplemental Appropriations Bill because:

• This amendment proposes dramatic cuts to education reform in the name of the status quo. The federal charter school programs, Race to the Top and the Teacher Incentive Fund are extremely important in not only driving a historic amount of change to our public education system, but in bringing new professionals into the education sector.
• A $100 million cut to the federal charter programs—almost a 40 percent reduction—would cost approximately 6,000 charter employees their jobs, 200 fewer public charter schools would start next year, and the lack of new resources into communities would stifle the economic benefits of creating new schools. This directly defeats the purpose of the education jobs fund.
• Cuts to Race to the Top createa new federal unfunded mandate. We’ve asked states to make critical education reforms and now the federal government is backing out!

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