PSEA+Summer+Message

= Please Don't Go On Your Summer Vacation Before You Contact Your Legislators and Tell Them Pennsylvania Can Do Better For Our Children = =[|Take Action!]=

=Tell your legislators to use the state budget surplus to help stop the billion dollar cut in school funding.= =Schools are letting out for the summer, and while students are looking forward to summer vacation, they, their parents, and their teachers are all worried about what school will be like in the fall. And with good reason, given local budget cuts school districts anticipate they will need to make.= = = = = = =
 * =Half the school districts are planning to eliminate summer school, so thousands of students who are behind today will lose the opportunity to catch up and start fresh in the fall.=
 * =Students in 86 percent of districts will return to larger classes than they had this year. They will receive less personal attention to promote their learning.=
 * =High school students in three-fourths of the districts will return to find more limited course offerings, as high schools across the state prepare to eliminate elective courses. For many students this will make for a less interesting (or, as they would say, more boring) curriculum.=

=[|Please don’t go on your summer vacation before you contact your local legislators and tell them Pennsylvania can do better for our children.]= = = = = =State budget negotiations begin in earnest this week. There have been POSITIVE signs that some legislators want to do more for public education in this budget. Let’s make sure that as budget negotiations heat up they don’t forget that these and other education cuts will hurt our children’s chances for success.= = = = = = =
 * =Nearly two-thirds of all districts plan to reduce or eliminate tutoring programs next year. Students who fall behind next year or who start the year behind because their districts dropped summer school will find it more difficulty to get help.=
 * =In two-thirds of districts across Pennsylvania, students will be returning to schools and finding that some of their favorite teachers were laid off over the summer.=
 * =Our youngest learners in three out of every 10 districts will start school next fall in half-day kindergarten programs, rather than the full-day programs that state funding made available to kindergarteners in those schools in recent years.=

=[|Contact your local legislators. Tell them to use the state budget surplus to help stop the billion dollar cut in school funding.]=

=The General Assembly still has time to pass a 2011-12 state budget that uses the growing state budget surplus to restore funding for the basic education subsidy, Accountability Block Grant, tutoring, and charter school reimbursements. This will protect the quality of our children’s education next fall.= =For more information on the Pennsylvania School Funding Campaign, please visit [|www.paschoolfunding.org.]= = = = = = Successful Schools…Successful Children…Successful Communities =

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