Take Action: Protect funding for our public schools!
The House Republican budget proposal is likely to include a $5 billion annual national voucher program that would use public funds to subsidize private school costs. Research has shown that voucher programs don’t improve student outcomes on average, but investing in public schools does. We should be making sure that our public schools have all the resources they need instead of creating a federal program to subsidize private schools that will disproportionately benefit wealthy families.
The budget proposal also includes significant cuts to Medicaid that would both blow a hole in Virginia’s state budget and lead to many families losing their health coverage. These proposed Medicaid cuts jeopardize public school funding because they could create massive new expenses for the state.
Please contact your congressional representative and urge them to vote against private school vouchers and Medicaid cuts to protect funding for our schools!
Contact your legislator to make sure they support public school funding!
1) Where to Start
One of the most powerful advocacy strategies is to share your own experiences and to express your support for public education with your elected officials. Find out who your lawmakers are and their contact information here.
2) Next Step
Email and ask for a brief meeting to express your priorities for school funding and ask them where they stand. In your message, you can also include a statement of your support for school resource equity in Virginia.
3) What to Bring Up
The need to adequately staff and fund our schools is an ongoing issue in the state. Click here to learn more about school funding topics. Don’t be afraid to print and bring the fact sheets with you to the meeting!
Fund Our Schools is a statewide coalition of parents, students, teachers, and organizations who believe that every child in every zip code across the Commonwealth of Virginia should have access to a high-quality public education. The campaign officially launched in December 2019, and our advocates quickly began mobilizing and organizing across the state at budget hearings and throughout the General Assembly legislative session.
We are calling on lawmakers to fully and fairly fund public schools across the Commonwealth. The Virginia General Assembly has failed to fulfill its constitutional duty to adequately fund its public schools. Our campaign utilizes and values all of the advocacy tools that our organizational members and individual supporters bring to the coalition work. Our priorities are grounded in racial equity and and center the voices of students, parents, teachers, and those most impacted by underfunded schools.
