Continue to Advocate for More School Funding

Families,

We need you to continue to communicate the priority of increasing the funding for public schools in the state budget.  Increases in state funding for SPS will go to funding more school counselors, as we understand it today.  

 At this point in the legislative session, state legislators will have heard from districts about the numbers, will have formed opinions about what needs to be funded, will be frustrated that budgets always mean hard decisions have to be made, will be struggling with the compromises they have to make, and are likely very, very tired. We need to tell them things that they don’t know, and in a readable way. Our best option for advocacy right now is to share our stories, to give legislators the information they may not have - how their decision impacts our individual schools, our individual kids, and letting them know that the money they invest in our districts has real impacts on our kids.

We are in a pandemic and there are many needs.  Our legislators need to hear from us to help them make difficult priority decisions.  Once this legislative session is complete, the PTA will continue to advocate for more funding for schools as we are far from sufficiently funding schools even before the pandemic.

A sample letter is below.  If you are in the 43rd legislative district, please cut, past and personalize it.  Send it to the emails listed below.  (If you are in a different district, replace the first three emails with you legislators.  You can find your district and legislators here.)

There is a paragraph where you can personalize the letter with a story about your student's mental health and needs.  The more stories we can send to the legislators, the better.  Thank you.

Send to: 

 [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Copy and paste this text.  Customize the text in bold:

Dear Senator Pederson, Representative Chopp, Representative Macri, Representative Ormsby, Senator Rolfes, Senator Wilson, and Senator Frockt,

I am writing to ask that you increase the state funding in the budget for public schools, and that you not require that districts use Federal dollars before they are able to access state funding. Please make sure that additional funding for counselors is in place for the fall 2021-2022 school year. Governor Inslee declared that we have a youth mental health emergency, and from the data he shared and my own child’s experience, I believe him.

We need those counselors now. My student [insert 1 paragraph story about something your student experienced or struggled with this year, or worries about the transition back to school buildings; you can skip this paragraph if you prefer].

I know that you value the youth in Washington, and I hope that you will recognize that returning to schools needs to include emergency funding so that our students have the support they need in the buildings they will return to. Will you help to make sure that our schools come out of the pandemic with the staff they need to meet the needs of students? Will you increase the funding for our schools in the budget?

Thank you,
[Your Name]
[Your Address]