Support An Indepdent State Board Letter

SUPPORT AN INDEPENDENT STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION! Firefighters and police. Schools. Health and welfare. Why would Mayor Fenty jeopardize these and other vital city services by vetoing the District’s 2010 budget? Because one tiny provision in the District’s $10.0 billion spending plan gives budget and staffing independence to the all-elected D.C. State Board of Education. This provision does not change the authority of the State Board, give it new license to intervene in local school affairs, or increase its budget. But the Mayor opposes it because it would remove his control over a body of elected representatives. Under the current structure, the Mayor controls the State Board’s budget and staffing. He removed Board staff positions in 2009 without notifying the elected members of the State Board and attempted to cut the Board’s budget by 50% in FY2010. Your representatives in the DC City Council unanimously approved –not once, but twice – a budget that simply gives the State Board the authority to make its budget request to the Council and to hire and supervise its own staff, who currently report to the Office of the State Superintendent. The Council recognizes that a body of elected officials reporting to a Mayoral appointee is unprecedented – and results in an alarming lack of checks and balances. Why should you care about independence for the State Board? Because the State Board is the legal entity that sets and oversees learning standards and academic achievement for all children in DC Public Schools and DC public charter schools. It must be able monitor student achievement honestly, without political interference and partisanship. In the last year, the State Board has, for example: •

Adopted the District’s first-ever health and physical education standards, enlisting schools in the fight against our city’s soaring rates of childhood obesity and teen AIDS;

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Assisted principals in determining their staffing needs BEFORE the school year starts by changing residency verification from July to April;

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Enabled our schools to hire the best teachers available by expanding the definition of “highly qualified teacher” that prevented NASA engineers from even interviewing for a position teaching high-school math.

SUPPORT AN INDEPENDENT STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION! Contact the Mayor and City Council members. Let them know you support the 2010 budget as approved, and that you want an independent State Board of Education representing you, not the Mayor, in setting high expectations for all of our children. WHAT YOU CAN DO 1) 2)

Send an E-mail (sample below) to the Mayor and Councilmembers and Sign the Petition at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/DCStateBoardofEd/

Let the Mayor and the Council know that you want an independent State Board of Education representing you in our city’s shared effort to build a world-class public education system for all learners. Please forward the attached sample letter to the following elected officials: Adrian M. Fenty, Mayor [email protected]

Jack Evans, Ward 2

Vincent C. Gray, Chairman Kwame R. Brown, AtLarge Michael A. Brown, AtLarge David Catania, AtLarge Phil Mendelson, AtLarge Jim Graham, Ward 1

[email protected]

Mary M. Cheh, Ward 3

[email protected] s [email protected]

[email protected]

Muriel Bowser, Ward 4

[email protected]

[email protected]

Harry Thomas, Jr. Ward 5 [email protected]

[email protected] Tommy Wells, Ward 6

[email protected]

pmendelson@dccouncil. Yvette Alexander, Ward yalexander@dccouncil. us 7 us [email protected] Marion Barry, Ward 8 [email protected]

SAMPLE LETTER TO E-MAIL (COPY AND PASTE INTO YOUR E-MAIL PROGRAM) To: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] Subject: I support an independent State Board of Education! Body: Mayor Fenty and City Councilmembers,

SUPPORT AN INDEPENDENT STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION! I am writing to express my support of the D.C. City Council’s decision to grant budget and staffing independence to the all-elected D.C. State Board of Education. While this proposal does not change the authority or responsibilities of the State Board, or give it new license to intervene in local school affairs, or increase its budget, it does give the State Board the authority to make its own budget request directly to the Council and to hire and supervise its own staff. The State Board of Education must be able monitor student achievement honestly without political interference and partisanship. I believe that by being independent, the State Board of Education will be best able to represent us in setting high expectations for all of our children. I am urging the Council to overturn the budget veto in September 2009. Thank you.