Contact members of Congress before summer ends
08/22/06 -- NSBA is asking all school board members and other school leaders to contact their members of Congress and urge them to increase federal funding for Title I and special education in the fiscal year 2007 appropriations bill and urge them to co-sponsor the bill to improve No Child Left Behind, H.R. 5709.
The good news is all of the information needed to communicate these two messages to Congress can be found on the NSBA website.
Key resources for advocacy efforts include:
• The NSBA Campaign to Restore Federal Funding for America’s Schoolchildren. This toolkit includes detailed information on the status of funding in Congress, talking points and rebuttals, NSBA’s national poll results on funding (which will support arguments for increased funding), coalition ideas, a sample opinion editorial, and a sample board resolution.
Access the contents at www.nsba.org/fundnow.
• The NSBA Campaign for Co-sponsors for H.R. 5709, the No Child Left Behind Improvements Act of 2006 Action Plan. On June 28, Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) introduced legislation, H.R. 5709, to strengthen accountability for improving the academic performance of public schoolchildren.
H.R. 5709 fully tracks NSBA’s draft legislation that many school board members lobbied members of Congress to sponsor.
The action plan provides a sample letter to congressional members, a sample resolution for school board members to adopt, a sample opinion editorial and a sample letter to community leaders, and a plethora of information about H.R. 5709.
NSBA’s grassroots network members were mailed copies of the toolkit and action plan. To receive a copy of the toolkit and/or the action plan, contact Kathleen Branch, manager of advocacy programs, at kbranch@nsba.org or (703) 838.6735.
NSBA appreciates your help in campaigning for these important issues.
| Reproduced with permission from School Board News. Copyright © 2006, National School Boards Association. Opinions expressed in this newspaper do not necessarily reflect positions of NSBA. This article may be printed out and photocopied for individual or educational use, provided this copyright notice appears on each copy. This article may not be otherwise transmitted or reproduced in print or electronic form without the consent of the Publisher. For more information, call (703) 838-6789. |