Governance First: Focus on federal advocacy day
More money sought for special ed, other issues on Federal Board Member Action Day
Published: April 1, 2014
During CSBA’s inaugural Federal Board Member Action Day March 19, local school board members met with members of Congress in their home districts to advocate for public education and reinforce school boards’ role as the only democratically elected body representing their local communities on education and children’s issues.
Region 7 Director Anne White, for example, led a group meeting with U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Pleasanton. They discussed the two main issues the grassroots event focused on: federal funding for education and improved, widely available school Internet connections.
CSBA’s message on federal funding is that while the end to sequestration cuts is appreciated, additional funding is still needed—especially for Title I and for special education, which has never been funded at the promised 40 percent of average costs. White, a board member in the Livermore Valley Joint Union School District, provided the congressman CSBA briefing papers detailing the need and showing that California sends more money to the federal treasury than it receives in services or investments.
“We’re a donor state, not a receiver state,” White pointed out afterward.
As for online connections, “We let him know how important they are to our smaller communities,” White said. CSBA supports President Obama’s goal to extend affordable high-speed connections to 99 percent of the nation’s students by 2018.
“As this was CSBA’s first Federal Board Member Action Day, participation in the event was low. However, governing board members are still urged to talk to their members of Congress over the coming months to highlight federal funding issues on Title I, special education and the E-rate,” CSBA Assistant Executive Director for Governmental Relations Dennis Meyers said.
Briefing papers used during the visits are posted under Federal Board Member Action Day at www.csba.org/Fedbmad.