Let's ALL Get On This: Let Your Legislator Know What Matters
I normally don't agree with a lot of the thought process over at LEV. But here's something I agree with:
Which of these makes more sense to you?
A) Keeping questionable industry tax breaks on the books?
OR
B) Amply funding our schools?
If you picked "B," it's time to voice your choice.
Please take two minutes of your time sending a message to your legislators.
We need to get a tsunami of e-mails to these legislators. We need them to hear our voices.
I know, it's Spring Break, there's a fugitive on the loose in Boston, it's Friday and so on.
Don't listen to me. Listen to the words of Blair Butterworth, a well-known political consultant, who died recently. This is from an op-ed posted at Crosscut. I have no idea what type of ed reform he is speaking about but it seems to come from the heart. This is partial:
When we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Seattle World’s Fair last year, it was hard not to wonder whether we’re capable of doing such exceptional things anymore. Have we become too smug, too complacent to pull out all the stops and come together as a community the way our civic leaders did in 1962 to make something truly monumental happen? Have our politics become so diluted by individual greed and self-interest that instead we collectively lurch from fad to fad without regard for the future we’re giving our children and our community?
I wonder — and so should you. The most glaring indicator that such worry is well-founded is education, where our constant under-investment and lack of meaningful recent reform and improvement is flat-out shocking. As a result, instead of laying the foundation for an even better future, our education system has become an albatross around our necks; one that will hold us back and hold us down if we don’t wake up and do something about it. We seem to have lost sight of a fundamental truth in the education reform debate: This is not about taxes. It’s about our children. It’s about our future. When we put counting dollars first, we rob our children and short-change our future.
What are our elected officials and business leaders doing about the education crisis? Where is the leadership and vision we need for progress? Where is the decisive action that puts our children first and works budgetary issues later?
As citizens and voters, we’re still willing and able to debate and make change. We remain a city and state that welcomes diverse points of view, and Washington citizens clearly still care and are willing to get involved. This was evident in last November’s election, with grass-roots triumphs on same-sex marriage and marijuana reform that drew national attention. However you voted on those two measures, we should all share the justified pride that this was proof positive that the civic dialogue is vibrant and healthy in our great state.
As citizens and voters, we must be at least as committed to education reform and get mobilized and more vocal now. But we also need and must demand stronger, more visionary leadership and bold action from elected officials and leaders of the business community. We must support and rally behind leaders who are willing to take bold action. And if they aren’t willing, let’s find and elect leaders who are.
We should collectively and adamantly insist on better leadership today. But we must also recognize that tomorrow’s leaders will come up through our education system — for better or for worse. Education reform gives us the opportunity to prepare future leaders capable of delivering better tomorrows.
Which of these makes more sense to you?
A) Keeping questionable industry tax breaks on the books?
OR
B) Amply funding our schools?
If you picked "B," it's time to voice your choice.
Please take two minutes of your time sending a message to your legislators.
We need to get a tsunami of e-mails to these legislators. We need them to hear our voices.
I know, it's Spring Break, there's a fugitive on the loose in Boston, it's Friday and so on.
Please do this.
Don't listen to me. Listen to the words of Blair Butterworth, a well-known political consultant, who died recently. This is from an op-ed posted at Crosscut. I have no idea what type of ed reform he is speaking about but it seems to come from the heart. This is partial:
When we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Seattle World’s Fair last year, it was hard not to wonder whether we’re capable of doing such exceptional things anymore. Have we become too smug, too complacent to pull out all the stops and come together as a community the way our civic leaders did in 1962 to make something truly monumental happen? Have our politics become so diluted by individual greed and self-interest that instead we collectively lurch from fad to fad without regard for the future we’re giving our children and our community?
I wonder — and so should you. The most glaring indicator that such worry is well-founded is education, where our constant under-investment and lack of meaningful recent reform and improvement is flat-out shocking. As a result, instead of laying the foundation for an even better future, our education system has become an albatross around our necks; one that will hold us back and hold us down if we don’t wake up and do something about it. We seem to have lost sight of a fundamental truth in the education reform debate: This is not about taxes. It’s about our children. It’s about our future. When we put counting dollars first, we rob our children and short-change our future.
What are our elected officials and business leaders doing about the education crisis? Where is the leadership and vision we need for progress? Where is the decisive action that puts our children first and works budgetary issues later?
As citizens and voters, we’re still willing and able to debate and make change. We remain a city and state that welcomes diverse points of view, and Washington citizens clearly still care and are willing to get involved. This was evident in last November’s election, with grass-roots triumphs on same-sex marriage and marijuana reform that drew national attention. However you voted on those two measures, we should all share the justified pride that this was proof positive that the civic dialogue is vibrant and healthy in our great state.
As citizens and voters, we must be at least as committed to education reform and get mobilized and more vocal now. But we also need and must demand stronger, more visionary leadership and bold action from elected officials and leaders of the business community. We must support and rally behind leaders who are willing to take bold action. And if they aren’t willing, let’s find and elect leaders who are.
We should collectively and adamantly insist on better leadership today. But we must also recognize that tomorrow’s leaders will come up through our education system — for better or for worse. Education reform gives us the opportunity to prepare future leaders capable of delivering better tomorrows.
Comments
It's an easy way to email them all at once. And you can customize your message if you like.
Along the same lines, Brian Rosenthal wrote a nice article in the Times about the switcheroo funding games that are getting played Plans swap and cut money already budgeted in schools. For example, he starts out with the Senate's version, which includes a $72 million cut to vocational education, then including that money in its budget as increasing money to education, as per the McCleary decision.
As Brian put, probably not in correct AP fashion, "Wait, what?"
We should all be saying that. Contact your legislators!