Press Release:
Parents Urge Californians to Protect Public Education And Vote "Yes on Prop 30 & Yes on Prop 38!"
Educate Our State, a parent-led grassroots
education advocacy group, mobilizes its 45,000 supporters in order to protect
education funding on the November ballot. The group is endorsing both Prop 30
and Prop 38.
San Francisco, CA, September 12, 2012: On behalf of
the more than six million California public school children, Educate Our State is organizing parents
and supporters to vote for education this fall and restore K-12 funds to the
state budget. Educate Our State is
urging a Yes for Education! vote on
November’s two education ballot initiatives: the Governor’s Proposition 30 and
the Advancement Project/PTA’s Proposition 38.
In order to prevent a split vote, and to ensure that one of these
measures - which will restore education funding - will pass, Educate Our State
is asking Californians to vote Yes on 30 and Yes on 38. To get out the vote, Educate Our State’s
45,000 supporters are organizing voter pledge drives and voter registration
drives in time for the November election.
“It is ludicrous that these campaigns are being
considered a competition. There is no
question that what is best for kids - preschoolers to college students - is for
both initiatives to pass!” said Crystal Brown, co-founder and Board President
of Educate Our State. “Without the funding provided by these initiatives,
schools will face cuts of nearly 20,000 teachers, a shorter school year, larger
class sizes and elimination of all or nearly all enrichment programs.”
California already lags behind all but a few states with respect to funding
(lower than 43rd), standardized test scores (math 43rd and reading 46th; NAEP
4th Grade 2009), and staff to student ratios (50th, NCES Common Core of Data,
2007-2008). For a synopsis of these propositions produced by Educate Our State,
please click
here.
“Educate Our State parent leaders, from one end of
California to the other, will be mobilizing voters to ensure they are prepared
and committed to voting for education this November,” said Annie Bauccio,
co-founder of Educate Our State, and campaign coordinator. Educate Our State,
along with many other organizations, demanded the legislature protect education
in this year’s budget. Instead they
passed a budget that leaves the security of education funding dependent upon
the results of this election. “We can no
longer allow political bickering to stand in the way of what is best for
California’s future. Parents are going
to do everything in their power to ensure the vote comes out in support of
education this year,” said Teri Levy, co-founder and Los Angeles leader.
For more information about the
campaign, “Yes for Education!”, as well as pledge events scheduled in specific
areas, please visit www.educateourstate.org.
Educate Our State can also be found on Facebook at www.facebook.com/educateourstate
and can be followed on Twitter at #yes4ed or #educateourstate.
Educate
our State is a grassroots, parent-led, statewide campaign uniting the voices of
Californians in support of high-quality, K-12 public education and to demand
real, systemic change. We believe parents, together with community leaders, can
organize, mobilize and put pressure on all stakeholders to work together and
agree on fundamental changes that put our children’s achievement and
success first. For more information visit: www.educateourstate.org.
Press Contacts: Crystal Brown (San Francisco)
(415) 279-3920 crystal@educateourstate.org
Teri Levy (Los Angeles)
(323) 445-6641 teri@educateourstate.org
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