Legislative Update:

October 4, 2004

 

Be sure to encourage your members to vote on Tuesday, November 2nd.  Deadline for registering to vote in California is October 18th.  For more information on registering to vote and finding out where to vote as well as questions for candidates on public school education, go to www.pta.org/ptawashington/vote.asp or for a copy to download, go to www.pta.org/ptawashington/guide.pdf .  An Easy Voter Guide from the League of Women Voters is available, in English, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese and Russian, at www.easyvoter.org

 

  1. Local Issues:

 

PUSD is in the process of forming the 7 sub-committees that will work on implementing the District’s new Strategic Plan.  The sub-committees are:  Student Achievement; Innovation & Creativity; Interpersonal Communication; Global Orientation; Personal Development; Environmental Awareness; and Lifetime Planning.  If you are interested in applying to serve on one of these committees, contact Jill Coats in Dr. Casey’s office at 426-4333 or jcoats@pleasanton.k12.ca.us.  The Student Achievement Committee has a large number of volunteers to date, but all of the other sub-committees are in need of additional members. 

 

Jamie Hintzke, our VP, Health & Education testified, on behalf of the Pleasanton PTA Council, before the Alameda County Hearing on Measure A on September 30th, 2004.  She spoke in support of the use of Measure A funds for school health initiatives including the funding of a credentialed school nurse for Pleasanton. 

 

  1. State Issues:

 

California State PTA Positions for Ballot measures for November 2nd General Election:

 

·        Supporting Proposition 61:  Children’s Hospital Projects

·        Supporting Proposition 63:  Mental Health Services Expansion

·        Opposing Proposition 68:  Non-Tribal Commercial Gaming Expansion.

 

For information, go to www.capta.org and click on the links from the home page.  For further details that support these positions, go to www.savethechildrenshospitals.com for information on Prop 61; to www.yeson63.org for information on Prop 63; and www.Stop68.com  for information and to download materials on Proposition 68. 

 

SB 311 Class Size Reduction (Sher) – adapts penalties for class size reduction so that incentive to maintain small class sizes remains.  Signed by the Governor on 9/30/04.

 

SB 1912 (Ashburn) & AB 2132 Pupil health:  self-administration of asthma medication and Epi-pens.  We lobbied very hard on SB 1912 to allow students to carry Epi-pens.  Signed by Governor on 9/28/04.

 

SB 6 (Alpert) re:  School Facilities Needs Assessment & Emergency Repair Fund - Offers grants to schools scoring in the 1st-3rd decile on API to conduct a one-time comprehensive assessment of school facilities needs and would reimburse school districts for emergency repairs as needed. Signed by the Governor on 9/29/04

 

SB 550 (Vasconcelles) re:  Accountability and Instructional Materials - Requires County Superintendents to annually review the sufficiency of instructional materials, assignment of teachers and the condition of school facilities in API 1-3 decile schools.  This information would be added to the School Accountability Report Card and would require school districts to correct deficiencies.  Signed by the Governor on 9/29/04

 

AB 3001 (Dymally) re:  Teacher Quality - Addresses teacher qualifications issues. Signed by the Governor 9/29/04.

 

AB 712 (Steinberg) re:  Preschool for All - Establishes voluntary access to preschool for all 3 & 4 year olds by the year 2015.  Vetoed by the Governor 9/29/04.

 

AB 1793 (Yee) Video Game Violence - We had sent letter of support to assembly committee members on this on 4/26/04 supporting information on ratings for violent video games.  Signed by the Governor 9/21/04.

 

 

3.      National Issue:  Education Funding

 

National PTA is urging members to contact their Federal representatives immediately to urge them to support the Senate version of the Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations bill for fiscal year 2005.  This bill provides a $3.2 billion or 5.7% increase for education over fiscal 2004, while the House version of the bill provides the smallest increase for America’s students in nearly a decade with only a 3.6% increase.  At the same time, the White House has proposed to cut education funding by $5 billion over the next five years.

 

To find out more about this issue and to send an automatically prepared email to your representatives, if you choose to do so, go to:

http://capwiz.com/npta2/mail/oneclick_compose/?alertid=6336566

 

 

This legislative bulletin will be posted on our Council website at www.pleasantonpta.org.  Please feel free to direct your members to the site or, if you would like an electronic version to send out to your members or to post on your own website, please contact me at look49@comcast.net and I will be happy to send it to you.