Academic Booster Club

Received from the Northwest Gifted Child Association:

GOVERNOR DELETES GIFTED EDUCATION FROM THE SUPPLEMENTAL BUDGET!!  PARENTS MUST SPEAK UP!!
 
It appears that the next legislative session will be one of great peril for highly capable programs. Under the Supplemental Budget proposed by the Governor on December 9th, funding for highly capable programs will be suspended for the school year 2010-2011.
 
NWGCA is asking you to write or email the Governor and your three legislators, asking them to fund gifted education in the Supplemental Budget. Contact information provided below.   This is what I wrote to my representatives:

Honorable Legislators:

 As you are working on the Supplemental Budget, please fund gifted education for the 2010-2011 fiscal year. These children are the raw material that we will need to propel the US successfully into the economic and ethical global future.

 The education system will lose $5 for each $1 the state fails to fund in this fiscal year. Local districts have been contributing $5 for each $1 the state has spent on gifted education over the last decade. Districts cannot continue to subsidize the state’s primary constitutional duty in these difficult times.

 State failure to fund gifted education for the 2010-2011 year will have extraordinary long-term negative effects on the programs serving our state’s most talented learners, placing those children in learning “limbo”, This limbo will gravely impair their ability to compete with their intellectual peers from countries who are spending real dollars to prepare their most talented learners to become the scientists, engineers, physicians, and teachers of the future.

Not investing in gifted education is extremely short-sighted. These children are the raw material that will be used to propel the United States successfully into the economic and ethical global future.
 
It does not make sense to suspend highly capable program funding only one year before such programs are scheduled to become a mandated part of basic education under ESHB 2261. It will be more costly, as well as detrimental to students, for these programs to be restarted in September 2011.
 
The Quality Education Council is going to recommend to the Legislature that the new definition of basic education be implemented in September 2011. They support the report of the Funding Formula Technical Working Group.
 
The recommendations of the FFTWG contain a provision for a “hold harmless” which will guarantee districts no less than the amount they receive for highly capable programs in the 2010-2011 school year. If there is no funding for these programs in 2010-2011, as the Governor proposes, then this means that there will be no foundation for gifted funding under the provisions of ESHB 2261.
 
The Governor is mandated to produce a supplemental budget. Each house of the Legislature also prepares a supplemental budget. We are going to have to work hard with legislators to make sure that highly capable funding is a part of their proposed supplemental budgets and that it appears in the budget they pass. This is going to take concerted effort on the part of all gifted advocates in the state.
 
There are two prongs to this effort.
 
First, the three gifted groups in Washington, NWGCA, WAETAG and the Coalition ask that you write or email the Governor and your legislators as soon as possible requesting that highly capable programs be funded in the supplemental budget. Gifted students need these programs in order to be successful in school and life. Districts will have no incentive to spend local dollars on gifted programs if the state does not provide their share of the funding.
 
EMAIL THE GOVERNOR
 
PLEASE WRITE TO ALL THREE OF YOUR LEGISLATORS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. HAVE YOUR STUDENTS WRITE THEIR OWN LETTERS.
 
Addresses for Representatives can be found through their web site
 
http://www.leg.wa.gov/House/Representatives/Pages/default.aspx
 
Addresses for Senators can be found through their web site
 
http://www.leg.wa.gov/Senate/Senators/Pages/default.aspx
 
If you don’t know who your legislators are, go to
 
http://apps.leg.wa.gov/DistrictFinder/Default.aspx
 
Craft your letter carefully and make it as succinct as possible. Introduce yourself as a constituent in the first paragraph. State your case. Make your request. Offer to provide more information and contacts if requested. Ask for a response. Thank your legislator for his/her time and attention.
 
Second, plan to be in Olympia on February 5, 2010 for Gifted Education Day in Washington. We need as many people there talking with their legislators about the need for gifted programs as humanly possible. More information on Gifted Education Day will be forthcoming when we have our plans firmed up. Superintendent Dorn is scheduled to speak to the group.
 
Marcia Holland, President
Northwest Gifted Child Association