Home > Contact Policy Makers
Home
Welcome
Funding: 1st to Worst
Budget Facts and Fiction
Protect Prop 98
Other Proposals
Interactive Advocacy Letter
Links & Archives
Contact Policy Makers
Sample Letters
Join Us!

 
In the Classroom:
Parents Put Protests Over Funding to Paper
by Ashley Powers
Los Angeles Times

Moms and dads are mobilizing, armed with computers, cell phones and a cause: the governor's proposed changes to education funding.

South Orange County parents recently deluged the governor's office with thousands of hot-pink letters. San Gabriel Valley parents and grandparents late last month wrote their own protest missives. In Torrance , a parents group that lobbies for smaller classes engineered a write-your-lawmakers campaign.

These efforts probably are trendsetters for other parents because the California State PTA intends to ship nearly 4,000 "grass-roots advocacy" packets to its chapters around the state. The PTA said that, after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger unveiled his budget, members clogged its phone lines and inboxes with one question: What can we do?

What incensed education groups was Schwarzenegger's recent proposal to reduce the school funding that Proposition 98 requires. The law, which voters approved in 1988, set up a funding formula that provides schools with at least 40% of the state budget each year and increases education spending with state revenue.

Schwarzenegger and education groups agreed last year to suspend the proposition if the $2.2 billion it required was restored in this year's budget. Instead, the governor said last month that he would withhold Proposition 98 funding and ask voters to amend the law.

"People feel betrayed," said state PTA legislative director Cecelia Mansfield. "They're disappointed the governor did not keep his word to make education a priority."

Bruce Fuller, who studies education and public policy at UC Berkeley, said the quasi-grass-roots strategy could pay off. The impact of parents telling legislators about broken windows and teacher layoffs at their schools, for example, could be effective.

"The more vivid, the more human scale, the more legislators will perk up and say, 'This is serious. This isn't a legislative discussion in Sacramento,' " he said.

 
Join Us!

Please join Poway Unified Education Advocates  in supporting quality public education for all Californians.
 
Make a Difference!  Contact Your Representatives!


If each of us took the time to contact our elected representatives we could make a huge difference in how education funding is prioritized.  

Please note that due to anthrax precautions in Washington D.C., letters sent to district offices or via e-mail or fax will be received more quickly than those sent via postal service to Washington D.C.

 

State Officials

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
Constituent Affairs
State Capitol
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: (916) 445-2841
Fax: (916) 445-4633 
email: governor@governor.ca.gov

Senator Bill Morrow
State Capitol
Room 4048
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: (916) 445-3731  Sacramento
Fax:  (916) 446-7382  Sacramento
E-Mail State Senator Morrow

2755 Jefferson Street, Suite 101
Carlsbad, 92008
Phone: (760) 434-7930   
Fax:  (760) 434-8223   

 Representative George Plescia
Capitol Office                                   
State Capitol Building                     
Room 3098                                       
Sacramento , CA   94249-0075
Phone: (916) 319-2075 
Fax:  916-319-2175        
E-Mail State Representative Plescia

9909 Mira Mesa Boulevard, Suite 130
San Diego, 92131
Phone: (858) 689-6290    
 Fax:  858-689-6296     

  Senator Dennis Hollingsworth

State Capitol
Room 5064
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: (916) 445-9781  Sacramento  
Fax: (916)-447-9008   Sacramento  
E-Mail State Senator Hollingsworth

27555 Ynez Road, Suite 204
Temecula, 92591

Phone: (951) 676-1020  District Office-Temecula   

Fax: (951) 676-1030   District Office-Temecula



Federal Officials

President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Washington, DC 20500
(202) 456-1414
(202) 456-2461 (fax)
E-Mail President Bush

Senator Barbara Boxer
112 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-3553
Fax: (415) 956-6701 
E-Mail Senator Boxer

600 B Street, Suite 2240
San Diego, CA 92101
Phone: (619) 239-3884
Fax: (619) 239-5719 
Senator Dianne Feinstein
331 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 228-3954
Fax: (415) 393-0710 
E-Mail Senator Feinstein

James Peterson, District Director
750 "B" Street, Suite 1030
San Diego, CA 92101
Phone: (619) 231-9712

Representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham
2350 Rayburn Building
Washington DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-5452
Fax: (202) 225-2558
E-Mail Representative Cunningham

613 West Valley Parkway
Suite #320
Escondido, CA 92025
Phone: (760) 737-8438
Phone: (858) 755-8382
Fax: (760) 737-9132

Representative Darrell Issa
211 Cannon House Office
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: 202-225-3906
E-Mail Representative Issa

1800 Thibodo Road, #310
Vista, CA 92083
Phone: 760-599-5000
Fax: 760-599-1178

Not Sure Who is Representing You?

Find your State Assembly member

Find your State Senator
    [ Home ] [ Welcome ] [ Funding: 1st to Worst ] [ Budget Facts and Fiction ] [ Protect Prop 98 ] [ Other Proposals ] [ Interactive Advocacy Letter ] [ Links & Archives ] [ Contact Policy Makers ] [ Sample Letters ] [ Join Us! ]