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Thank you for supporting adequate funding for our schools!
Dear PTA members and leaders,
Thank you to the many thousands of PTA volunteers who have worked so hard and selflessly on behalf of Proposition 38, the Our Children, Our Future Education Initiative. Your dedication and your knowledge is inspiring!
This election year you helped dramatically raise awareness about the importance of increasing taxes to support public education.
Almost a year ago, the PTA partnered with the Advancement Project and an ever-growing coalition of education, civil rights, community and business groups in an effort to change the course of education funding in California and transform our schools.
While others waited for someone else to take action, we responded to you, our members, when you said “adequate school funding” was your highest priority.
We helped to write and gather signatures for Proposition 38.
Our goal was simple and straightforward:
Give voters the chance to do what our legislature has so far been unable to do – stop the chronic underfunding of our public schools and lift California from the basement in school funding.
We knew passing a measure this ambitious wouldn’t be easy – and it wasn’t.
The results of Tuesday's vote for Proposition 38 were disappointing and not what we hoped for, but we deeply respect the voters of California. We’ve said all along that providing voters with choices is healthy for our democracy. We congratulate Governor Brown and his supporters on the passage of Proposition 30, which will help stabilize the state budget.
Californians must understand, though, that we still have much work to do to bring school funding up to the levels that our children deserve and our state needs. We understand that transformational change takes time. This election you helped lay the foundation by making the public even more aware of California's terrible school funding crisis and what it will ultimately take to fix it.
And I assure you: PTA is committed to staying the course until our state truly does tackle this long-term school funding crisis.
PTA will continue to support efforts in the legislature, in the courts, on the ballot, and in communities across the state to tackle this incredibly important and difficult challenge. Our children deserve nothing less.
We welcome the opportunity to work together with all organizations, individuals and elected officials to help raise our voices and continue to fight to ensure that every child has access to a comprehensive, quality education.
Sincerely,
Carol Kocivar
President
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