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<TITLE>Alert! Tell your lawmakers to protect school funding</TITLE>
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<FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'>Dear friends,<BR>
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I’m 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.<BR>
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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.<BR>
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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.<BR>
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You can also point folks to the Michigan Parents for Schools web site, which has been covering developments in the Legislature:<BR>
<a href="http://www.miparentsforschools.org/">http://www.miparentsforschools.org/</a><BR>
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Or send people directly to our Legislative Action Center:<BR>
<a href="http://capwiz.com/miparentsforschools/">http://capwiz.com/miparentsforschools/</a><BR>
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Thanks for your help!<BR>
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Steve Norton<BR>
Michigan Parents for Schools<BR>
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<HR ALIGN=CENTER SIZE="3" WIDTH="95%"></SPAN><FONT COLOR="#800000"><FONT SIZE="6"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:22.0px'><B>Take action now!<BR>
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<FONT COLOR="#000080"><B>Make your voices heard!<BR>
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<B>The school funding situation is deteriorating further.</B> 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 <B><I>possible cuts to districts of as much as $122 per pupil right at the end of the school year</I></B> unless new money is found.<BR>
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</SPAN><FONT COLOR="#000080"><FONT SIZE="5"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:16.0px'>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.<BR>
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</SPAN></FONT></FONT><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'><a href="http://capwiz.com/miparentsforschools/">http://capwiz.com/miparentsforschools/</a><BR>
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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. <B>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.</B> And the prospect for school funding next year is looking bleak. <B>Join Michigan Parents for Schools in our fight to make sure our state's public schools get the funding they need and deserve.<BR>
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</SPAN><FONT COLOR="#800000"><FONT SIZE="6"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:22.0px'>What can I do?<BR>
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</SPAN><FONT COLOR="#000080"><FONT SIZE="5"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:18.0px'>1) Write your lawmakers<BR>
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Tell your lawmakers how you feel about what's happening to school funding. Some ideas:<BR>
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* Now that Michigan's economy is in trouble, this is the worst time to be pulling the props out from under our public schools.<BR>
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* We need to be making investments in our schools, to attract jobs now and to build the future we want for our state.<BR>
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* Huge cuts right at the end of the school year will hurt all schools and be devastating to many districts around the state.<BR>
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* 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.<BR>
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* 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.<BR>
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</SPAN><FONT SIZE="4"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:14.0px'><B>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!<BR>
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<a href="http://capwiz.com/miparentsforschools/issues/alert/?alertid=9720526">http://capwiz.com/miparentsforschools/issues/alert/?alertid=9720526</a><BR>
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</SPAN><FONT COLOR="#000080"><FONT SIZE="5"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:18.0px'>2) Join our website and sign up for our email list<BR>
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<B>Please visit, and consider creating an account on the Michigan Parents for Schools web site here:<BR>
</B><a href="http://www.miparentsforschools.org">http://www.miparentsforschools.org</a><BR>
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.<BR>
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</SPAN><FONT COLOR="#000080"><FONT SIZE="5"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:18.0px'>3) Get involved locally<BR>
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<B>Get involved in your local schools, talk with teachers and administrators, and help find ways to work together to deal with this crisis.</B> 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.<BR>
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</SPAN><FONT COLOR="#800000"><FONT SIZE="6"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:22.0px'>Together, we can make a difference!<BR>
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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 <a href="http://www.miparentsforschools.org.">http://www.miparentsforschools.org.</a></SPAN></FONT>
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