The Governor is recommending a continuation of the $20 million cut to AEAs, as well as 0% allowable growth rates for both fiscal years (2013-14 and 2014-15). If legislators don’t hear from AEA supporters, it will be easy for them to continue with the proposed cut.
The bottom line is that we need to generate as many contacts as possible to legislators letting them know of the effects of budget cuts to students and parents. We need contacts from parents, board members, and all supporters of our AEA.
The message? All AEA 267 staff members are strongly encouraged to use this template language (below) and share with your families. It’s essential that we act! (Feel free to also share this list of AEA 267 Legislators serving our region of the state so that they have contact information.)
To Your State Senator/Representative:
As a family whose child has received services from the AEA, I/we want you to support full funding to the AEAs. Please remove the excessive budget cut the Governor has recommended for the AEAs. (Please add a reason why you think the AEA deserves your/their support. Share with the legislators a sentence or two about the services your child/family has received from the AEA).
Please remember when sending messages to legislators that it is important for you to personalize emails or letters with stories and send them from your personal email account or stationary. It is against the law for us to lobby the legislature using agency email or stationary. Also, do not send any such messages during agency work hours, as that would also be a violation of the law.
What can you do?
As an AEA 267 employee, we can do some, and maybe all of the following, to help us get through these challenging times. Here are at least 10 different things we can do to be positive and promote our AEA system:
- Convey and protect a positive image of the AEA system by acting with integrity.
- Provide remarkable service.
- Truly care about those you serve and work with.
- Be responsive.
- Be dependable.
- Contact your legislators.
- Stay educated.
- Tell the success stories from our agency to parents, community members and schools.
- Focus on students, teachers, schools and families.
- Keep a healthy life-work balance so you can be your best at both.
Finally, the agency is making a concerted effort to reach out to as many families as possible to encourage them to “like” us on our AEA 267 Facebook page. This will allow us to maintain continuous contact with families regarding advocacy needs as well as to share pertinent tips and information. We need your help! Please encourage those families you work with to join us on Facebook. (We would like to “see” staff there, too!)