Advocacy Movement
The Blue Team is the Right Team! We should be very proud of the difference we’ve made this year. Whether or not the legislature enacts any of our suggestions, it is said that we have been successful in becoming a trusted source of information and ideas. This year we have provided:
- Data to correct misperceptions regarding education funding
- Concrete suggestions of how legislators can help school districts succeed even with less funding
- Evidence that our parents place a high priority on education and are willing to constructively work to improve our school district.
Few folks act. Consequently, our activities have had a greater impact. Please know that each time you did one of our Blue Team Activities, you made an impact. Thank You!!!!
Our work continues. As this year has been atypical and completely consumed with work on the budget, little legislative work has been accomplished. We expect next year to see a good deal of activity on bills. This will be an ideal time to encourage decision-makers to increase options and remove unnecessary requirements. Look for Blue Team activities this year.
Commit 30 minutes to become more informed. Visit some websites that you have never accessed. See what information is available. Learn! Suggestions are listed below (no order of priority). Choose sites that interest you and explore. In our busy lives, we don’t always take the time to learn. NOW is the time.
To explore MB PTA websites:
To explore the MBEF website – www.mbef.org (don’t miss the “2009 Budget Crisis” on the left of the home page)
To explore requirements for our schools (from the California State Board of Education, an organization within the California Department of Education):
- CA Content Standards (what schools are required to teach) http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/index.asp
- Testing information http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/
To explore our government
Our California representatives:
- Assemblymember Ted Lieu http://democrats.assembly.ca.gov/members/a53/
- Senator Jenny Oropeza http://dist28.casen.govoffice.com/
Our congressional representatives:
- Congresswoman Jane Harman http://www.house.gov/harman/
- Senator Barbara Boxer http://boxer.senate.gov/
- Senator Dianne Feinstein http://feinstein.senate.gov/public/
Our California Government:
- Governor http://www.gov.ca.gov
- Senate http://www.senate.ca.gov
- Assembly http://www.asm.ca.gov
- California Department of Education (elected position of State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell) http://www.cde.ca.gov
- Office of the Secretary of Education Dr. Glen Thomas (appointed by the Governor) http://www.ose.ca.gov
Our federal Government:
- The White House http://www.whitehouse.gov/
- Senate http://www.senate.gov/
- House of Representatives http://www.house.gov/
To compare school districts (be aware that financial data does not really compare apples to apples, e.g., local funding includes passthrough monies for ASB) http://www.cde.ca.gov/ds/ (DataQuest and Ed-Data are both very useful sites) – most recent data will be from 2007-08 (before all the cuts). Also EdSource is a useful site, http://www.edsource.org/home.html.
Click here for “Our Students Matter NOW” logo in pdf.
Click here for “Our Students Matter NOW” logo in JPG.
