Advocacy

Ohio State PTA recently sent the call to action below. This is one of those

times when our voices, as parents of and supporters of, traditional public

education in this state need to be heard.

House Bill 153 calls for the re-distribution of funds that are currently marked for

traditional public schools (like the Westlake City School District) and

transfers those funds to voucher re-imbursement programs for parochial and

private school children and to develop charter schools. There is a place for

voucher programs and charter schools as part of school choice, however, voucher

programs and charter schools should not exist at the expense of traditional

public education.

Our State Senator, Tom Patten, needs to know that we in Westlake believe in

traditional public education and that enough is enough. Traditional public

education needs to be a priority to help maintain Westlake City Schools’ ranking

as Excellent with Distinction.

What can you do?  Let your voice heard – it is very, very easy. Only a couple of

clicks on your internet browser. State PTA has taken care of the notice - all

you need to do is go to www.ohiopta.org and look for the ADVOCACY tab at the

top. Capwiz is the cover page - and just click.

 STATE ACTION ALERT FROM OHIO STATE PTA:

 MAKE PUBLIC EDUCATION A PRIORITY! 

Dear Ohio PTA Member,

 The Amended Substitute House Bill 153 was passed by the House of Representatives

on May 5.  This version of the budget includes components that increase vouchers

and charter schools while cutting funding for gifted education and slashing

funding to K - 12 education.

 The bill has now moved to the Senate.  We need to contact our Senators to let

them know this is unacceptable.  As a PTA member, concerned citizen and parent,

let them know that public education is a priority in Ohio!

 You can send a message to your Senator by going to the capwiz tool on the Ohio

PTA website and filling in your information.

 Go to the Ohio PTA website:  www.ohiopta.org

                             Advocacy Page (tab at top)

                             Capwiz (Hit Take Action)

Fill in your information and hit send.

Please take action today and help Ohio PTA let our state leaders know that

education is a priority!

Public Policy Agenda:  The 2011 Public Policy Agenda is available at http://www.pta.org/public_policy_agenda.asp.

Child Nutrition:   On December 13, 2010, President Obama signed S. 3307, the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, into law.  The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, reauthorizes programs under the Child Nutrition Act.  These programs include school breakfasts and lunches, local wellness policies, the Summer Food Service Program, the Child and Adult Care Food Program, and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC).  At a time when one-third of American youth are either overweight or obese and one-fourth are at risk of hunger, this legislation makes a significant investment to increase access to vital anti-hunger measures, improve the nutrition quality of all foods served in schools throughout the school day, and provide a wide variety of supports necessary for school food service workers to meet the needs of American children.

National PTA will be closely involved with the implementation of these reforms and improvements in order to ensure that parents and communities remain informed of issues affecting their children, school food service providers are given the support they need to meet the needs of students, and our children are being served the high-quality nutritious offerings in school that they need to meet their full potential.  This includes providing public comment on a number of aspects of the new law that will be put forth through proposed rules and regulations by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Education Funding:   Last month, Congress approved an amended version of HR3082, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, which will keep the government funded through March 4.  The measure maintains funding for Title I and IDEA at FY2010 levels through March 4.  However, even though programs are largely “level funded,’ HR3082 will increase government spending by $1.16 billion through March 4.  House Republicans have voiced desire to cut $100 billion in federal spending this appropriations cycle, and obviously, non-defense discretionary spending (including education programs) is the first on the chopping block.  While this might mean deceases in overall education appropriations after March, like cuts to Title I, independent programs like PIRCs are especially vulnerable.  Similar to last year, PTA will be circulating a dear colleague letter in both chambers calling for safeguard of the PIRC program appropriation.

ESEA Reauthorization:  House and Senate republicans, including the new chair of the [renamed] House Education and the Workforce Committee, have expressed desire to approach reauthorization in pieces, via smaller stand-alone bills targeted at certain aspects of the law where compromise is most achievable.  House Republican leadership has expressed distaste for “large bills that are thousands of pages.” Senate Democrats, on the other hand, including chair of the Senate HELP Committee, are on the record as preferring a comprehensive reauthorization.  Either way, the outlook for reauthorization this year – as we enter into a presidential election cycle – is dim.  The expectation is that legislation to inform reauthorization and possibly serve as targeted reforms, like PTA’s Family Engagement in Education Act, will continue to be introduced.

Family Engagement in Education Act:   Changes to the bill language previously introduced as HR5211 were made to leverage the Administration’s proposed Family Engagement and Responsibility Fund.  All programmatic elements of the bill remain in-tact; however proposed funding mechanisms shifted slightly.  A positive outcome was that the changes actually lower the overall cost of the bill.  Our lead sponsors in the 111^th Congress, Reps. McCarthy (D/4-NY) and Platts (R/19-PA) have agreed, again, to champion the legislation in the House.  Additionally, they have agreed to introduce the amended language.

PTA is pleased to announce the next installment in the Achieving Excellence and Innovation in Family, School, and Community Engagement Webinar Series on Wednesday, 2/9 from 2:00 – 3:30 pm EST for Building Strategic Partnerships to Foster Community Engagement in Education.  

The U.S. Department of Education and its partners United Way Worldwide, National PTA, SEDL, and Harvard Family Research Project invite you to participate in the fifth installment of this webinar series:

Building Strategic Partnerships to Foster Community Engagement in Education
February 9, 2011, 2:00–3:30 p.m. (EST)

Registration: http://www.nationalpirc.org/engagement_webinars/register.html
Strategic community partnerships are a key component of systemic family, school, and community engagement in education. These partnerships draw on the strengths of community groups as they surround students with an array of supports to enhance learning and prepare them for the 21st century.  Strategic partnerships also create a culture of communication with each other and with families and schools to ensure the services they provide meet the needs of their communities.

This webinar will examine practical examples of how to build successful strategic partnerships that foster community engagement, including how to select the organizations, people, and services to be included; how to structure communications to ensure ongoing collaboration; and how to build connections with families and schools.

We will hear from a Promise Neighborhood grantee about the program’s vision and how it is forming partnerships to support students from birth through college and career preparation, from The Children’s Aid Society about why the community school model promotes strong families and successful students, and from the United Way of Lake County, Illinois about a community engagement planning process to ensure on-time high school graduation.  The U.S. Department of Education’s Center for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships will also speak about what the initiative is doing to sponsor deliberate and ongoing partnerships.

Featured speakers include:
•    Moderator: Lindsay Torrico, Manager, Public Policy, United Way Worldwide
•    Reverend Brenda Girton-Mitchell, Director, Center for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, U.S. Department of Education
•    Jane Quinn, Director, National Center for Community Schools, The Children’s Aid Society
•    Irasema Salcido, Founder, Cesar Chavez Public Charter Schools for Public Policy, Promise Neighborhood Grantee
•    Helen Westmoreland, Director of Program Quality, Flamboyan Foundation
•    Michelle Mittler Crombie, Vice President of Community Development, United Way of Lake County, Illinois

Ohio PTA is monitoring the following bills:

BILL                        SPONSOR                            TITLE                                                                                     

HB 21                    Combs                                  Allow new cyber-based schools/Educator license evaluation/licensure                                                                                                  qualification

HB 30                    Gardner                             School funding-revise system

HB 30 Bill Summary:       

v  Eliminates the authority of the Superintendent of Public Instruction to adopt rules imposing spending and reporting requirements associated with the "Evidence-Based Model" (EBM) school funding system and eliminates the authority to impose graduated sanctions for noncompliance with those rules.

v  Eliminates the requirements that school districts account separately for most components of the EBM and submit annual spending plans

v  Eliminates the School Funding Advisory Council.

v  Eliminates the requirement that school districts offer all-day kindergarten and reinstates the permanent authority for most districts and community schools to charge tuition for all-day kindergarten.

v  Reduces to three (from five) the number of years that must be covered by a school district's, community school's, or STEM school's annual financial forecast.

v  Eliminates the requirement that school districts establish family and civic engagement teams.

OHIO - 129^th GENERAL ASSEMBLY

The new speaker of the House for the 129^th General Assembly will be Rep. William Batchelder (R-Medina). Rep. Lou Blessing (R-Cincinnati) is speaker pro tem, Rep. Matt Huffman (R-Lima), majority floor leader; Rep. Barbara Sears (R-Sylvania), assistant majority floor leader; Rep. John Adams (R-Sydney), majority whip; and Rep. Cheryl Grossman (R-Grove City), assistant majority whip. 

In the Senate, Sen. Capri Cafaro (D-Hubbard) remains the Senate minority leader; Sen. Shirley Smith (D-Cleveland) is the assistant minority leader; Sen. Edna Brown (D-Toledo), minority whip; and Sen. Jason Wilson (D-Columbiana), assistant minority whip.

The Ohio PTA Common Core State Standards Committee has been working hard over the past few months promoting the common core state standards and training PTA members on advocacy skills.  The committee will be reaching out to councils to schedule additional trainings on the CCSSI and advocacy skills.

So far, Ohio is in second place (behind New York) in the challenge.  The National PTA has challenged all states to increase the action alert response rate through the PTA Takes Action Network.  The PTA Takes Action Network is how PTA keeps members up to date on what’s happening on federal legislative issues affecting families, schools, and communitiesundefinedand is one way PTA members can reach out to their members of Congress and speak up for children.

The state PTA with the greatest statewide increase in response to action alerts will be named the National PTA Takes Action Challenge Champion.  State PTAs will be measured by the percentage increase in: Response to National PTA Action Alerts (numbers sent to Congress).

Sign up on the network by going to http://www.pta.org/takesaction/.   You can also sign up by going to www.ohiopta.org  - Advocacy page.  Let’s go Ohio!