Have you heard about the newly proposed anti-charter school bills and are you ready to take action against them?
* The Hearing for AB 1508 has been moved to 4/24/2019
Together, these bills are the most comprehensive attack on charter schools and school choice in California that we have ever seen.
As homeschoolers, we all value the homeschool choices we have in California. We need to protect our right to choose between filing a PSA, joining a PSP, or enrolling in a homeschool public charter school program.  It is imperative that our community as a whole speaks out against these bills and all bills that threaten a parent’s right to make choices for their children!
Please see below what you can do to help - and please be sure to share this with everyone you know!!!!
As a community last April, we successfully came together to oppose AB 2756, a bill that we all agreed limited our rights to homeschool our children! Homeschool Concierge was so proud to see our community come together, PSAers. PSPers and Charter Schoolers all standing in line together in the Capitol Building to oppose that bill!
Now is the time to go on the record with the Assembly Education Committee and your local State Representatives.
Here are some ways we encourage everyone to help protect parent and educational choice:
Please contact all of the Committee on Education Members.
Between now and April 10th this needs to be our focus. These are the people we need to be contacting daily by phone, email, U.S. Mail and in person. Please start to contact them immediately. Please be kind and respectful when you talk with them to share your personal stories about how school choice and charter schools have saved our children. Please emphasize how these proposed bills will eliminate our charter schools in 5 years, this will reduce school choice for our kids and a lack of educational choices in our state will hurt children.
Contact info can be found at the Committee on Education Website
Register to attend the rally and Ed Committee Hearing
on
Charter Public Schools Advocacy Day.
April 10, 2019 in Sacramento.
Here is the link:
Residents of, or those planning a trip to, Sacramento, please visit the Committee on Education Members.
If you are in the Sacramento area we encourage you to make an appointment to speak to the staff in the office so they can meet you and your kids and you can share your encouraging stories and your concerns on what will happen to our children if we lose our right to chose our children’s school.
The Education Committee office is located in the Legislative Office Building, 1020 N Street, Room 159 and phone number is (916) 319-2087
Extra Focus on Contacting Patrick Donnell’s Offices.
If you are in Southern California please reach out to Assemblymember Patrick O'Donnell. He is the chair of the Education Committee and has local offices right here in Long Beach and San Pedro.
Long Beach Office:
5000 E. Spring Street, Suite 550
Long Beach CA 90815
Tel: (562) 429-0470
Fax: (562) 429-7871
San Pedro Office:
461 W Sixth Street #209
San Pedro, CA 90731
Tel: (310) 548-6420
Fax: (310) 548-4160
We encourage everyone to please call his offices to share your concerns and to see if you can schedule an appointment to talk to O’Donnell or one of his staff members in person.
If you are not from his district it may be helpful if you can find a constituent in his district and try to get an appointment to go together. Â
When you see him or his staff please present your heart warming stories about your charter school experiences and how having charter schools as a choice in education is saving kids.
Share our homeschool-charter school connection with a homeschool friendly Assembly Member.
Kevin Kiley, Vice Chair of the Education Committee has supported our community in the past when there has been proposed bills limiting our rights to homeschool. He is pro-homeschool but let’s share how we as homeschoolers value not only our PSA rights but also our right to use the charter school system.
CAPITOL OFFICE:
State Capitol
Suite #4153,
Sacramento, CA 94249
916-319-2006
DISTRICT OFFICE:
8799 Auburn-Folsom Road
Suite A
Granite Bay, CA 95746
916-774-4430
Show them our numbers as we stand together in OPPOSITION at the Capitol Building in Sacramento.
These bills will all be heard on April 10 in the Assembly Education Committee. Please mark this date on your calendar and make plans to join all of us at the Capitol Building that day to attend the committee meeting ready to share your opposition.
Sign Online Petitions
Stand For All Students has organized an online platform for families to take a stand to oppose these bills. Please take the time to sign up now.
Stand For All Students has also created a great guide to help you, you can download it here.
Want a little help in what to write or say when you contact the representatives?
We know that some of you may want a template that you can use to contact your representative so I want to thank CCSA for allowing me to share the letter templates they created.
Please feel free to adapt these letters for your needs.
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Our goal in talking with our representatives is to share with them that we are parents who are their constituents with children whose lives are positively impacted by our right to choose charter schools. Please be friendly and kind when communicating with our representatives. We need to gain their compassion.
Every call, letter and visit can make a difference!
Thank you for your support of parent and school choice!