Voter's Guide and Action Update
Remember the panic we felt earlier this year when we learned that to "save" millions of dollars, a state budget would have totally eliminated seven grades of online public school programs?! Fortunately, thanks to families across the state who targeted legislators with calls and emails, that didn't happen. Now we need to act to make sure the next budget doesn't threaten our online programs again next year.
To begin this work, WA Families for Online Learning wrote and sent a questionnaire to this year's 295 legislators and legislative candidates working to be elected to the WA State Legislature. We received an awesome response, yet more than half of the legislative candidates reported they had never talked with a student enrolled in an online public school. Can you imagine legislators deciding the future of your child's education before they've ever met with a family of a student enrolled in an online program?
Parents have organized the candidate responses from the questionnaire into a Voter's Guide. Here is the link to click on: https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=0Alt_o13QoE_4dEU3WllXWmVOcEpONzlsc1B6SnhTSFE&hl=en&single=true&gid=0&output=html Please review the responses from your three representatives (one Senator and two State Representatives). If your legislator or candidate isn't listed, it's because he or she failed to respond to the survey or is one of the twenty-five senators who doesn't have an election this year. The Primary Election is August 17th. Don't forget to vote!
We need your help with the next, most important work... delivering our newly printed "Scrapbook of Student Stories" from our families to our elected representatives. While this may seem intimidating, to help take the edge off a meeting with your elected representative, we'll provide a short script. A couple of students could video a mock event. We really need you and dozens of families across the state to join us in delivering our "Scrapbook of Student Stories". Without your help, some lawmakers may never learn how important online learning is to your child and mine.
If you see the need and are willing to help us to deliver our "Scrapbooks", we have "experts" who are more than willing to walk us thru the steps and answer our questions. They assure us that our representatives want to learn from us as much as we need to share our story with them. Our coordinator is a first grade teacher and former legislator who will make sure we're prepared for our short visits. She will call and chat with each family considering delivering a scrapbook to their representative.
Are you willing to make a humorous video? Are you willing to deliver a scrapbook or learn more about delivering one? Please email us www.onlinefamiliesg@gmail.com and include your address so we can reach representatives across the state. Your participation could make a real difference to your representative and the future of all online public school programs!
Thanks in advance for joining us in this important work to preserve our children's online education!
Rich Dingle
President, Washington Families for Online Learning
