Tuesday, April 28, is a very important day for education.  On this day, the House will discuss the proposed education budget for FY10. 

When the budget process began, policy makers knew that they would have, as a minimum, $500 million less in state funds for K-12 than they had the year before.  That presented an almost hopeless situation. Thanks to the leadership of Sen. Hank Sanders and Rep. Richard Lindsey, a good budget has been developed. Gov. Bob Riley's commitment to use the K-12 portion of the stabilization dollars in the state budget was critical to the development of this budget.

This budget has been developed to protect jobs and programs and uses available state dollars and the state fiscal stabilization dollars to do this. The use of the stimulus funds for Title I and IDEA will be determined be local school systems. Items that were eliminated from the budget to protect jobs---technology, library enhancement, professional development, reduced funding for textbooks, to name a few--can be funded from the federal dollars in schools that qualify. 

Will the current budget provide everything schools need for the coming year? No, but with good planning, frugal spending and wise use of the federal dollars, we will survive.  BUT, a very important vote must take place on Tuesday. House members need to hear from their constituents.  As educators, you know the importance of   professionalism and words of encouragement.  Please sign this campain directed to your House member and encourage him/her to vote YES on Tuesday, April 28.

Dear Rep. Bachus, Rep. French and Rep. Hill,

Delaying a vote for the education budget beyond Tuesday is not in the best interest of schools who need to make decisions for next year. Once the budget is approved in the House, it must go back to the Senate for concurrence before being transmitted to the Governor.  Delaying a vote to Thursday, April 30th, 2009, could mean that the budget would not be transmitted to the Governor until May 5.  Please oppose any effort to delay action on the education budget on Tuesday.

Our students desperately need your support.  It is critical they have the necessary funding to maximize their learning. Thank you in advance for your concern on their behalf and working towards an educational budget that will be in their best interest.