Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Please contact the Education Committee today


We have been informed that few changes can likely be made to SB24 once it leaves the Education Committee. It is expected to leave the committee in the next 10 days!

We have identified several key legislators who need to be reminded, by as many people as possible, the dangers of many different aspects of the bill. Please take some time to email the following individuals TODAY.

Your letter to the two co-chairs should be focused on specific problems with specific parts of the bill. You could also send them the message on the achievement gap below. Here are some sample letters you could use (You just have to copy and paste them):


Education Committee Co-Chair Email addresses:

Andrea Stillman, co-chair:

Andrew Fleischmann, co-chair:

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Next, please send a different set of emails to these key legislators regarding the achievement gap!

Sample Message (Copy and paste, modify parts of it, or send your own.):

I am writing because I have serious concerns about how SB24 could actually end up further widening the achievement gap. The bill places a greater emphasis on using public tax dollars to pay for more privately-run charter schools. These schools operate with up to 30% non-certified teachers, and they pull students who are more likely to be successful on standardized tests from surrounding districts. According to state department of education statistics, Achievement First students are less likely to be English language learners, are less likely to come from a home where English is not the first language, and are less likely to be eligible for free and reduced lunches. This destroys the heterogeneous mix that is essential to the success of 21st century classrooms in the surrounding public school districts.

While SB24 lowers teacher standards by not requiring teachers to get Masters degrees in the span of their entire career and not allowing districts to pay teachers for advanced degrees, districts that can pay for more highly qualified teachers will continue to attract them. Even though a high paying district cannot outright pay a teacher on a salary schedule for advanced degrees, they will obviously continue to pay more than surrounding districts and only hire teachers with these advanced qualifications. This will essentially pull the best teachers out of all of the poorer districts.

Furthermore, the bill will cause an even greater achievement gap by breaking down tenure. The truth is tenure is only due process law. With that said, it provides good teachers incentive to stay with a district. With 5 year renewable tenure and renewable contracts, the best teachers will be free agents every couple of years, moving to the highest paying districts because they will be starting at square one at whichever school they end up working at the next year.

The bill is shortsighted and under-researched, and it will contribute more greatly to the very problem it claims to address. Student achievement comes with highly trained, highly qualified teachers who are lifelong learners, working in heterogeneous schools that have not been combed through by profit-seeking private companies that have established such a tight grip on our various levels of state government. Please consider these issues while studying SB24.

This (or an email of your own addressing these points) should be sent to the following individuals on the achievement gap task force:

Achievement Gap Task Force Email Addresses:







Legislators make decisions based on the volume of feedback they get from the public. Please do your part today to help us out before it is too late!

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