your help is needed

[Guest guest]

YOUR HELP IS URGENTLY NEEDED TO PREVENT DISASTROUS CONSEQUENCES TO SPECIAL

EDUCATION FUNDING!

1. School funding bills (S4000 and A4600) are being introduced tomorrow,

January 3rd, in both the Senate and Assembly budget committees. Please

strongly voice your opposition by calling/e-mailing your legislators and

attending the Senate and Assembly hearings tomorrow!

See attached action alert for details.

2. Please respond to the e-mail below from Steve Latz, member of Our

Children/Our Schools and longtime education advocate.

Many thanks!

Ruth Deale Lowenkron

Education Law Center

60 Park Place

Suite 300

Newark, NJ

973-624-1815, ext. 21

973-624-4618 (TDD)

973-624-7339 (Fax)

RLowenkron@...

------------------------------------------------------------

E-MAIL FROM STEVE LATZ:

I need whatever help you can give me DURING THE DAYTIME, Wed-Fri (Jan.

2-4). Please let me know which days you have available to

make some phone calls.

We're within striking distance of stopping Corzine's disastrous

school funding proposal, but we need to broaden the base of opposition

among legislators. We have nearly unanimous

collective opposition from the Hudson County and Essex County

Democratic assembly representatives. There is of course a lot of

opposition from Republicans. There are still a lot of people on the

fence. My sense from the hearing last Thursday is that Democrats would

be inclined to follow their leadership and vote yes, but they are

worried about what DOE might not have told them about this bill and

its actual effects on their constituents' school districts.

Here's the plan:

I am almost done with an info piece that's intended to be a

" consumer-reports " type guide to the effects of the legislation on

school districts. We need to get it into the hands of every legislator

in the state, and make sure they pay attention to it. We want to

concentrate on certain key legislators, but blanket all of them. Getting

that done means making phone calls to the legislators,

trying to get them on the phone, or, barring that, speaking to their

Chiefs of Staff, and making sure they look at the material. If you can

help, respond to this email and tell me:

- what day(s) and times you can spare

- which legislative district(s) you'd like to call (if you have any

preference and/or contacts)

- A cell number I can reach you at anytime.

This effort is one of several efforts to influence legislators by

several different advocacy groups. The main intention of this one is

to reach into the suburbs and make sure legislators (in Bergen,

, Union and Hunterdon Counties, especially), understand how the

bill adversely impacts their school districts. With the exception of a

very few people, Hudson and Essex County Assembly members are declared

solidly against.

If you're one of those people involved in a parallel lobbying

effort, PLEASE call and fill me in on legislators' intentions beyond

Hudson and Essex (I've already heard from some of you, but my

information is still spotty).

To everyone who responds, I'll email specific instructions on who

to call when, together with a web link to the document we want them to

look at, together with the link to my 40-slide powerpoint presentation

to provide you more background if you think you need it.

I hope a lot of you can help. I look forward to hearing from you.

Best regards and Happy New Year

Steve Latz

973-985-7294 (mobile)

973-833-0351 (fax)

slatz@...

ACTION ALERT

STOP THE VOTE!

The Issue:

On November 30th, Governor Corzine outlined his plan for a state funding

formula for education and yesterday, on the eve of the holiday season, a

draft legislative bill was made public. A major component of the plan

addresses state aid for special education, and the proposal represents a sea

change for special education funding. The Governor has stated that he wants

his proposal passed by the Legislature in the few remaining weeks of " lame

duck " session, which will guarantee that there is no input from concerned

citizens, and legislators will barely know what they're voting for. The

actual funding bills, A4600 and S4000, are being introduced tomorrow,

January 3rd. At the very least, the Coalition for Special Education Funding

Reform urges you to contact your legislators and urge them to SLOW DOWN!

Action Needed:

Tell Your State Legislators Not To Rush A

School Funding Proposal Through Lame Duck Session!

We are asking that parents, families and the advocacy community take

IMMEDIATE action! Please:

1. Call or e-mail your state legislators. To find your three state

legislators, go to http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/members/legsearch.asp or

call 609-292-4840. To send an e-mail, go to

http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/SelectMun.asp and type in your municipality. A

sample e-mail and talking points are attached.

2. Attend the Hearings of the Senate and Assembly Budget Committees on

Thursday, January 3rd at 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. at the State House Annex,

Committee Room 4. We also encourage you to testify at the hearings. You do

not need to sign up in advance in order to testify.

Please Help Students With Disabilities

Receive A Free And Appropriate Public Education

The New Jersey Coalition for Special Education Funding Reform

Talking Points in Response to

the Governor's Proposal for Special Education Funding

The Governor's Proposal Should Not be Rushed Through the Lame Duck

Legislature. Rushing this proposal will eliminate the chance that special

education advocates and others will have a chance to voice their concerns.

Legislators must be urged to give this critical issue the time and attention

it is due.

Aid must be calculated based on actual student costs. State special

education aid should not be calculated based on the statewide average cost

for special education categories. The statewide average cost will not

capture the broad variation in costs for special education services or

geographic differences. Districts serving a greater proportion of high-cost

students would be hurt under such a model. The current tiered system must

be preserved and revised to reflect the intensity of services provided, and

the actual cost of those services.

Aid must be distributed based on the actual number of children served by a

district. Special education aid must not be distributed to each school

district based on a census model, with no direct relationship between the

number of children with disabilities served by the district and the amount

of state aid provided. Under a census model, children who need special

education services may not receive them, particularly if districts believe

they are under-funded. Other students may be offered services, but without

the protections provided by federal and state special education laws. The

current per pupil calculation must be preserved.

Aid must not be adjusted for local wealth. Special education aid must not

be adjusted for local wealth, with school boards in more affluent

communities receiving a smaller percentage of the available aid than school

boards in less wealthy communities. Wealth-based special education

funding will discourage districts with resources from developing quality

special education programs and services, and will have the unintended effect

of punishing districts that have taken the initiative -- in some cases in

response to state-sponsored funding initiatives -- to develop in-district

services for higher cost students. School districts should not be forced

into a position in which they must cut general education services in order

to pay for special education. Wealth-adjusted aid for education should be

limited to general education aid.

One hundred percent of " Extraordinary Costs " must be funded. The mandate to

fund " Extraordinary Costs " aid cannot be reduced to 75%. Such a reduction

in the mandate will limit the aid available for services for those students

with the most severe disabilities. The mandate for funding extraordinary

costs must remain at 100%, and the costs must in fact be funded at 100%.

Extraordinary costs aid must be generated based on the services the student

requires - not the cost of the services.

Sample E-mail

Dear ________________:

My name is ____________ and I live in _____________ (town) [and I have __

children who attend school in the ___________ school district].

I am writing to urge you not to vote on the Governor's proposed school

funding proposal during " lame duck " session.

The issue of school funding is exceedingly complex and one of the most

important issues legislators consider. Funding for our public schools - now

and in the coming years - will have a profound impact on all of our

students, on our taxpayers and on our economic future.

There is not enough time during the " lame duck " session for the public and

the Legislature to properly consider and debate any funding proposal. Let's

not repeat the history of past funding laws which were rushed through with

little or no public debate and, in the end, seriously shortchanged our

public schools, our students and all our citizens.

Any special education funding proposal must include the following:

* Aid must be calculated based on actual student costs

* Aid must be distributed based on the actual number of children

served by a district

* Aid must not be adjusted for local wealth

* One hundred percent of " Extraordinary Costs " must be funded, and

Extraordinary Costs aid must be generated based on the services the student

requires - not the cost of the services

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Name

Address

Phone Number

E-mail Address

[Guest guest]

i dunno how much help it was, as i tend to ramble, but i posted. From: mofmars333@...

See the comment below made by a fool at McCarthy's article. I detest when I hear these idiots say they'd rather have a child with autism than a dead one. Please have your say.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jenny-mccarthy/vaccine-autism-debate_b_806857.html

"Meaning I'd rather have a LIVING child with Autism than a DEAD child.

I thought that was pretty gosh darn clear, but I guess maybe the part about the watching your unvaccinat­ed child die a HORRIBLY MISERABLE AGONIZING death just wasn't clear enough.

In the land of disproven and unproven fruit loops your child may have a very, very, very UNLIKELY chance of becoming Autistic but on the flip side, by NOT vaccinatin­g yeah, very, *VERY* likely chance your child is going to die horr­ibly.

The problem is the vaccine naysayers try and claim that there's "no real risk" an­d yeah, there isn't wh­en you're COMPARING THEM TO THE MILLIONS WHO ARE GETTING IT. Sorta radically skews the scale though in that regards. If you start looking at the risk amongst those WHO AREN'T VACCINATED­...hoo boy! Yeah, dead children all over the place."