Email Writing Campaigns
This message was prepared by Ballard PTSA Legislative Liaison,Brian Duncan. Brian is the Ballard HS PTSA Legislative Liaison and is on the Seattle Council PTSA Board. The email templates were provided by Emily Hanson, the Catherine Blaine K-8 PTA Legislative Chair. Please read this important email and take the actions recommended to advocate for our schools:
Dear advocates for SPS students,
I’m writing to encourage you to reach out to Washington State Legislators about school funding issues. Our legislators are currently in a session that will determine our state’s budget for public education for the next two years. The legislature has chronically underfunded our state public schools (see articles from Crosscut and The Stranger), which leads to inadequate staffing and supplies for our students which we then need to fund with PTSA dollars. The issue is becoming more urgent as Seattle Public Schools is facing a budget deficit of more than $100 million, which will force them to make serious cuts and close schools.
We need to advocate for the legislature to increase allocation of funds to public schools and increase the state's ability to collect revenue for the schools.
The legislature is currently considering several bills that would help with school funding. There are bills in both the senate and house that would increase the funding that the state provides for students receiving special education services. Our schools are already funding these students but are not receiving adequate funding from the state to cover these costs. There are different versions of these bills, and advocating for the version that will provide the most funding for SPS will most appropriately meet our students’ needs.
There is also a bill that will allow our state to collect tax revenue from the wealthiest Washingtonians by taxing financial assets valued at over $250 million. This is estimated to affect less than 1000 tax payers and could generate $3 billion annually. Some experts suggest that its chance of passing is low and that it is likely to meet legal challenge if passed. However, it is worth supporting because our schools desperately need a way for our state to collect more revenue from those who can most afford it.
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Key bills to support by commenting/emailing your legislators (click highlighted bill numbers below):
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HB 1239 Corporal Punishment and Educator Accountability Reform
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And the crucial One Bill to fund them all:
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More deep dive information Links:
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8-State National Coordination Effort to support the Wealth Tax
ACTION ITEM #1
#1 - Email your legislator to encourage supporting the Special Education Funding Bill, HB 1436.
Email addresses for 43rd Legislative District -
Subject: Pass the Original HB1436!
Sample text:
Please pass the original HB1436. The substitute does not meet the needs of Washington's students.
The substitute put forward for HB1436 is not adequate and does not demonstrate that Special Education is a priority. The original HB1436 was excellent. All students in Washington, regardless of disability status, need to be able to access basic education, and our state has an obligation to fund that access. We are asking you to eliminate the arbitrary cap, fix the multiplier so that it addresses the documented gap in funding, fund inclusion - this is best practice for all students, and make sure that there is language access support for multilingual families who need access to special education.
For the future of Washington, we need all our children in our schools to have access to education, and we need our state to fund that access.
Thank you,
Name
Legislative District 43
Address
ACTION ITEM #2
#2 - Email our legislators to encourage support of bills for special education, wealth tax and increasing budget for public schools.
Email addresses for 43rd Legislative District -
Subject: Eliminate the special education cap and pass a wealth tax for K-12 schools!
Sample Email Text:
I am a constituent with a child in the Seattle Public Schools, and I'm writing because our schools are facing a worsening budget crisis as the state continues to underfund our public schools. Districts across the state are laying off teachers, cutting programs and classes, and even closing schools. This will drive even more families to leave our public schools, making the funding problems even worse.
To solve this, I urge you to do the following with key education funding legislation, whether it is already in your chamber or if it comes to you from the other chamber:
SB 5311: Please advocate to amend this bill to remove the cap on special education funding. While our schools need an increase in special education funding, merely raising the cap from 13.5% to 15% is inadequate and falls well short of what districts actually need to provide programs and services to students.
HB 1436: Please vote yes on the original version of this legislation and reject the proposed substitute. The original version of this bill handles special education funding correctly, eliminating the cap entirely. I ask that you not adopt the proposed substitute, which would phase in the increases over time, failing to meet immediate student and school needs. Our students need this funding now.
SB 5486/HB 1473: Please pass these bills and create a new wealth tax on the richest 2,000 people in our state. Polling shows 67% of Washingtonians support this, so I'm not asking you to do anything unpopular. I also ask you to amend the legislation to specifically allocate at least half of the revenue it generates to K-12 public school districts, rather than simply put it in the Education Legacy Trust Fund.
HB 1238: Please pass this bill to provide free school meals to every child in Washington State, as we did with federal stimulus funding in recent years.
Finally, when the legislature writes the budget for 2023-25, you should provide at least $1 billion more for K-12 public schools and ensure that no district must make any cuts. In addition to passing a wealth tax, you should also raise the capital gains tax rate to 10%, up from its current level of 7%. The public supports making the rich pay more taxes, especially to fund our schools.
Public schools are your paramount duty, and I look forward to you taxing the rich to fund our public schools while also eliminating, rather than adopting a tiny increase in, the cap on special education funding.
Sincerely,
Name
Legislative District 43
Address