[Monroe-schools] Alert! Tell your lawmakers to protect school funding

[Steven J Norton]

Dear friends,

I¹m sending out the alert below because we are at a critical juncture for
school funding. The Governor has already warned school districts that they
will lose as much as $122 per pupil by June 1st unless the Legislature is
able to find new sources of funding. Our lawmakers in the Legislature are
now negotiating over what steps to take to close the school aid deficit for
this year. Those negotiations will also affect what kind of funding is
available for next year and for the future.

No one in Lansing can afford to pretend that this will all go away. Some
lawmakers are still under the illusion that the people of Michigan want
lower taxes no matter what it does to our schools. We need to tell them how
we really feel.

Please read the message below and contact your lawmakers as soon as you can.
Please also pass this message along to your friends and neighbors, and
encourage everyone to make their voices heard at this important time.

You can also point folks to the Michigan Parents for Schools web site, which
has been covering developments in the Legislature:
http://www.miparentsforschools.org/

Or send people directly to our Legislative Action Center:
http://capwiz.com/miparentsforschools/

Thanks for your help!

Steve Norton
Michigan Parents for Schools


Take action now!

Make your voices heard!

The school funding situation is deteriorating further. State officials are
expecting revenues earmarked for schools to come in even lower than expected
in January -- $100 - $150 million lower than the earlier estimates that were
already revised downward. That means a total shortfall of as much as $527
million for this year and possible cuts to districts of as much as $122 per
pupil right at the end of the school year unless new money is found.

Tell your lawmakers that we need to fix school funding and invest in our
schools. Let them know that you are willing to use your tax dollars to help
support vibrant and efficient public schools, especially in these difficult
times.

http://capwiz.com/miparentsforschools/

The Legislature passed, and the Governor signed, a package of modest cuts
and some large one-time accounting fixes that covered $315 million of the
original $377 million deficit. But now the deficit is growing and the cuts
will have to be that much larger unless we agree to find new funding for
schools. And the prospect for school funding next year is looking bleak.
Join Michigan Parents for Schools in our fight to make sure our state's
public schools get the funding they need and deserve.


What can I do?

1) Write your lawmakers

Tell your lawmakers how you feel about what's happening to school funding.
Some ideas:

* Now that Michigan's economy is in trouble, this is the worst time to be
pulling the props out from under our public schools.

* We need to be making investments in our schools, to attract jobs now and
to build the future we want for our state.

* Huge cuts right at the end of the school year will hurt all schools and be
devastating to many districts around the state.

* As citizens and parents, we're willing to do our part and make financial
sacrifices to support our schools, if we know that the money will be used
effectively.

* We know that it will cost us something to fix the problem, but it pales
compared to the cost of doing nothing and letting our schools decline.

Visit our Legislative Action Center to write an email message to the
Governor, your state Senator and State representative - and you can do it
with one click!

http://capwiz.com/miparentsforschools/issues/alert/?alertid=9720526

2) Join our website and sign up for our email list

Please visit, and consider creating an account on the Michigan Parents for
Schools web site here:
http://www.miparentsforschools.org
You can sign up for updates of new content on our site, and you can join our
email list. We're trying to get parents across Michigan informed, involved
and organized so that we can be a constructive force for supporting our
public schools.


3) Get involved locally

Get involved in your local schools, talk with teachers and administrators,
and help find ways to work together to deal with this crisis. Talk to your
neighbors about what's happening and what is at stake. Tell everyone about
this web site and what we are trying to achieve here! Encourage other
parents to make their voices heard as well - in Lansing as well as in your
home town.

Together, we can make a difference!

--

Michigan Parents for schools is a non-profit, non-partisan advocacy group
for parents and other concerned citizens working to ensure adequate and
stable funding for all Michigan public schools. To find out more, please
visit our web site at http://www.miparentsforschools.org.
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