Want to Talk Education with your Legislator? Here's where they will be

From the Seattle Council PTSA:

36th District Town Hall meeting
(That's Queen Anne, Magnolia, Ballard and Phinney Ridge)
Saturday, March 14. Time and place TBD.
Rep. Reuven Carlyle
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37th District Town Hall meeting
(That's Madrona, Columbia, Rainier Valley, Rainier Beach)
Saturday, March 14, 1 p.m. at Garfield Community Center, 2323 East Cherry St., 98122
Rep. Sharon Tomiko Santos
-
43rd District Town Hall meeting
(That’s Wallingford, Fremont, Capitol Hill, Ravenna, Madison Park)
Saturday, March 14, 1:30 p.m. at First Baptist Church, 1111 Harvard Ave.
Rep. Jaimie Pedersen; Rep. and House Speaker Frank Chopp
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46th District Town Hall meeting
(That's Greenwood, Northgate, Lake City, Laurlehurst)
Saturday, March 14, 1 p.m. at Meadowbrook Community Center, 10517 35th Ave. NE
Rep. Phyllis Kenney, Rep. Scott White, Senator Ken Jacobsen
-
Don't see your district or representatives? Contact them and encourage them to set up or participate in a Town Hall meeting while the Legislature is in session. Don't know you district? http://apps.leg.wa.gov/DistrictFinder/default.aspx

Comments

Charlie Mas said…
I mean this in the nicest possible way, but what is the point of talking to your legislator about state support for schools?

All of the delegates from the Seattle area will tell you that they are all for more money for schools. Is there even one of them that you have to convince?

They will all tell you that they are already doing everything they can. So is there something you can say to them to make them more effective?

Where is the value in meeting with these people and letting them tell you how much they agree with you and how hard they are working to get more money for schools? They go to Olympia every year and every year they fail to bring back education funding reform - some years they even fail to bring back education funding. But we keep re-electing them.
3/4/09, 3:42 PM
Mr. Edelman said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
3/4/09, 4:10 PM
Mr. Edelman said…
Charlie,

You think there is no value in talking with them at all?

If you suddenly found yourself face to face with a legislator, is there nothing you would say to him or her?
3/4/09, 4:11 PM
Charlie Mas said…
I guess I might ask them what they perceive to be the obstacle to adequate education funding and what they are doing to clear that obstacle.

How is it that everyone can agree that we should do something and we still end up not doing it?

Right now I would remind them that the federal government has sent them stimulus funding specifically for schools and encourage them - in the strongest possible language - not to siphon off any of that funding for other purposes.

But I don't imagine that anything I said would have any influence over their actions. They're going to do what they're going to do regardless of my input.

People like you and me just don't rate with them. I'm not sure who does. Maybe contributors, maybe party officials, maybe the media. I don't know. Once in office, they are practically guaranteed re-election for as long as they care to run. Why should they listen to anyone?
3/5/09, 9:04 AM
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