Open Letter to Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown; Where Do You Stand On Education?
Dear Meg Whitman & Jerry Brown,
As a parent of a Californian third and fifth grader I have become saddened, frustrated and confused by the lack of funding and support that our public schools receive.
Through the years, I have seen budgets, services, support and classes cut, class size increase, teachers pink-slipped, and parents asked to step up and fund programs and services. I have seen parents with financial means “opt out” of sending their children to the neighborhood schools, and choose the private school route. I have seen teachers who love their career find different professions, simply because they can’t afford to pay their bills on such a low salary. I have seen parents of children with special needs make it their full time job to fight for services that their children desperately need. I have seen gifted programs simply disappear. I have seen way too much in the past six years that angers me beyond words. As a parent, I want what is best for my children, and believe strongly that ALL our children deserve quality education in this great state.
Those who ultimately pay the price for lack of funding are our children.
I want you to assume that I am a single-issue voter, and my only issue is Education. You may also assume that I would openly consider a Republican or Democratic candidate and have, in the past, voted for candidates of both parties. I am looking at this issue not as an expert on how schools are funded, how teachers are paid, or how services “magically” happen; I simply know that, through the years, I continually hear frustration from our valued educators and anger from the parenting community that the quality and support for our schools are diminishing.
I turned to my local parenting group of three thousand Silicon Valley families, and asked them to help me create a list of fair, reasonable and important questions that we ALL want answered. Ultimately, this will help each of us make an informed decision on who is going to get our vote. I am sure that any parent reading this article will also want these questions answered.
We respectfully ask that you to take some time to read and answer these questions – in a way which all California parents can understand. I would even welcome the opportunity to sit down and meet with you in person. I'd be happy to bring along a group of Bay Area parents from different socio-economic backgrounds, neighboring towns and Bay Area communities!
Continued on the next page
Follow Technorati