Governor Strickland has provided strong investment to early childhood programs by adding $20 million for FY 2008, FY 2009 budgets for these programs.  Under his leadership, the investment in grades K-12 is strong as well:

Provide basic aid support for school districts through a per-pupil basic aid amount of $5,565 in FY2008 and $5,732 in FY2009, an increase in per –pupil basic aid of three percent in each fiscal year.  The future of large and small districts will depend upon passage of the Governor Strickland's budget.

Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,

I am writing in support of Governor's Strickland's education budget. The Governor's budget demonstrates his understanding that learning begins before a child enters school and continues beyond high school.

I support the Governor's early childhood initiative that would: 1)Provide all-day, everyday kindergarten services to children in 132 districts that are eligible for all-day kindergarten funding through poverty based assistance (PBA); 2)Increase funding for the Early Childhood Education program by 52.6% in FY2008 and 8.6% in FY2009; 3)Provide services through the Early Childhood Education program for approximately 5,690 children in FY2008 and 6,180 children in FY2009, increasing from 3,740 children in FY2007 (over 65%) increase over the biennium from FY2007; 4)Allow up to 49 new school districts to offer the Early Childhood Education program in fiscal year 2008 and up to an additional 12 new districts in FY2009; 5)Allow the Department of Education to administer, in coordination with the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, the Early Learning Initiative program, which provides full-day, full-year services for up to 12,000 children in both FY2008 and FY2009. For ease of administration, the appropriation for provider funding has been moved to the budget for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

I strongly support the Governor's plan to place a moratorium on charter schools and end the EdChoice voucher program. Ninety-eighty percent of traditional public schools are at continuous improvement or better. Where as, fifty percent of the charter schools are now on academic emergency or watch. I also have concerns about the abuses of the EdChoice voucher program. Parents who never had their children in public schools are enrolling their children in low performing public schools just to get a voucher and send their children back to private schools. We must stop this abuse and the program because public funds should not support private schools.

I urge you to support the Executive Budget.

Sincerely,

Campaign Launched:
April 02, 2007