May LM 2019 Special Issue_press

HowYouCanAdvocate forIncreasedSchoolFunding

IASA encourages superintendents to continue to advocate for increased school funding. But how can you do it? We’re here to help. We always recommend developing relationships with your local legislators and sharing with them how Evidence-Based Funding is making a difference in your district. If you aren’t sure who your local legislators are, here is a link to find them. Conversations with legislators will have the greatest impact. On page 8 of our Superintendents’ Toolkit , you can find some helpful tips about how to successfully engage with your legislators. If you would rather put something in writing, at right is an example letter created by Carrie Hruby, superintendent of O’Fallon CCSD #90, that you can to send to your local legislators. Click on the image at right to download a Microsoft Word document of the letter. You can fill in the blanks and customize it to fit your district.

We appreciate everyone who has been a strong advocate for a more equitable and adequate funding system in Illinois. However, we also recognize the fight is not over. With your help we can go from making a difference in students’ lives to a fully-funded system that is transformative.

DATE HERE REPRESENTATIVE/SENATOR’S NAME HERE ADDRESS OF LEGISLATOR’S OFFICE HERE Dear Representative/Senator NAME HERE SAMPLE LETTER

As leaders we thank you for your support of Illinois public education. The Evidence-Based Funding Model has the potential to make a significant impact on every school district in the state, provided it is funded as designed. New dollars that have been allocated to date have helped us begin to scale to adequacy, but we recognize that the work is not yet complete. The Evidence-Based Funding Model defines an adequate-funding target based on enrollment and the cost of researched strategies. The formula compares each district’s current resources with its unique adequacy target. Schools with the lowest adequacy rankings receive more funding, as Tier 1 schools. While each of our districts is unique in our adequacy targets and new funding received, we can all agree that scaling to adequacy is making a powerful impact on the state of Illinois and our public education programs. We thought you might like to see specifically how your support has begun to improve opportunities for students in our districts. Attached please find details from our district and feel free to contact us for more information. Thank you for your support of Illinois public schools! Sincerely, NAME HERE

Being an effective advocate for education issues is one of the most important jobs anyone involved with education, from administrators to parents, can do.

—Diane Hendren, IASA Director of Governmental Relations

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LMMay 2019 Special Edition