Using my blog for something important.

I normally don't use my blog to discuss anything political, but liberal or conservative, republican or democrat, we can all agree on the need to educate our children. I know that the economy is a train wreck right now, but the budget cuts that we're faced with to our schools here in San Diego have me greatly concerned. If you live in California, especially in San Diego, please don't sit back and remain silent. Lend you voice. Sending an email will only take a few minutes and it could make a HUGE difference.  Then after you are done, ask someone else that you know to do the same. Let's use the power of social networking to send a powerful message. On March 10th, the Board of Education identified approximately $100 million in budget reductions for the 2009-10 school year. They did so because by State Law they are required to adopt a balanced budget each year based on the available revenues they are given by the State of California. In two short months, they will receive the final funding allocation and the budget will need to be solidified. That gives us two months to push for more school funding from the State of California. The Obama Administration is sending stimulus money to California for education. It will not fill the $150 million budget deficit hole for the 2009-10 school year, but it may help mitigate some of the cuts. We are already looking at increased class sizes with fewer teachers and principals and less funds for transportation. In the worst case we could be looking at cuts to the arts, athletics and many other programs that we and our cherish. Here's the problem: The State may try to hold up sending out the stimulus funds to local school districts because they are worried about the need to make more cuts to the state budget. San Diego Unified and other urban districts took a disproportionate hit in the last budget cuts and we need to make sure that we get our fair share of the federal stimulus money. What can you do? E-mail every legislator from the San Diego area and the Governor.  We need a united San Diego delegation to pressure the Governor to release the money. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger http://gov.ca.gov/interact Senator Christine Kehoe senator.kehoe@sen.ca.gov Senator Denise Ducheny senator.ducheny@sen.ca.gov Senator Dennis Hollingsworth senator.hollingsworth@sen.ca.gov Assemblymember Marty Block assemblymember.block@assembly.ca.gov Assemblymember Lori Saldana assemblymember.saldana@assembly.ca.gov Assemblymember Mary Salas assemblymember.salas@assembly.ca.gov Assemblymember Nathan Fletcher assemblymember.fletcher@assembly.ca.gov Assemblymember Joel Anderson assemblymember.anderson@assembly.ca.gov Sign a petition to support Stimulus Dollars for our schools. You do NOT need to donate anything to the website. Just close the window after signing. Visit http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/School_funds/ to add your name. What to tell Sacramento: Don't hold up the stimulus money. Our schools need the stimulus money now. San Diego Unified got hit harder in the recent cuts than the average California school district. We want our fair share of the stimulus money. The winning formula is for the state to allocate the stimulus dollars to schools with "50% to categoricals and 50% to revenue limits." Thanks for listening! Sam