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Confirmation Hearing for U.S. Secretary of Education

PTA Leaders,

As you may know, today is the confirmation hearing of U.S. Secretary of Education designee, Betsy DeVos.  While National PTA does not endorse or oppose presidential nominees, we do have concerns regarding several positions Ms. DeVos has taken.  As such, National PTA has carefully reviewed and discussed opportunities to express our concerns without taking a position on the nominee herself.  At the bottom of this post are three letters National PTA has signed onto. They are publicly available on our website.

We look forward to hearing from Ms. DeVos during her confirmation hearing today on many important issues affecting children, families, their education and well-being, including her vision for how family engagement can be elevated and integrated into existing programs and prioritized in new initiatives.

 

Ms. DeVos’ hearing will be today, Tuesday, January 17th starting at 5pm ET.  You can watch the hearing via livestream here.  C-SPAN will also be airing the hearing. Check your local TV listings for the C-SPAN channel in your area.

 

Thank you,

Jacki

Jacki Ball | Director, Government Affairs

National PTA®
1250 N. Pitt Street
Alexandria, VA 22314

P: (703) 518-1243 | C: (703) 405-5206
[email protected] | www.pta.org | @balljacki

Connect with National PTA® on: Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | One-Voice Blog


JC/DC Alert: MOPTA Opposed Amendment 4

MO PTA Opposes Amendment 4:

Amendment 4 would create a constitutional amendment prohibiting any new state or local sales or use tax on any service or transaction that was not subject to tax as of January 2015. Amendment 4 would compromise Missouri’s ability to invest in education, health, public safety, transportation and other critical public services. Because the measure is a constitutional restriction, over time, as Missouri’s economy continues to change, this amendment will likely result in a significant erosion of the sales tax base, and compromise Missouri’s ability to invest in public services, like quality schools and safe neighborhoods. The sales tax supports over 22 percent of Missouri’s state general revenue budget in the current year. The amendment would destabilize this key component of Missouri’s ability to fund public services, and is likely to result in either budget cuts or require large increases in the sales tax rate to make up for the limited base. MO PTA does not support Amendment 4 and asks all our members to learn more about it and vote NO November 8th.

 

Carla Wiese

VP and Director of Legislation and Advocacy


JC/DC Alert: Family Engagement Center Funding

Family Engagement Centers – The newly enacted Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) includes the Statewide Family Engagement Centers (SFEC) program, which provides competitive federal grants to statewide organizations to promote and implement evidenced-based family engagement strategies. If the SFEC program is funded, applications for these competitive grants can be submitted to the U.S. Department of Education by statewide organizations such as non-profits or by groups of statewide organizations that have demonstrated involvement in engaging families in their child’s education and experience working with state-level agencies, communities, organizations and schools on family engagement policies and practices. Unfortunately, neither the House nor Senate included this important line item in their annual budget. It is not to late to have this key item funded but to accomplish our request we need to make our voices heard. PTA is asking Congress to Pass the 2017 Omnibus bill that would fully fund these important centers.  Please take a few moments to send a letter to our members of Congress. You can quickly send your letter by clicking here.

 

Thank you,

Carla Wiese

VP and Director of Legislation and Advocacy