GET THE NEW PTA YEAR OFF TO A GREAT START BY TAKING OUR
LEGISLATIVE ISSUES SURVEY
Hello, and welcome to the 2011-12 PTA Year. On behalf of the leadership, staff and members I want to thank you for joining with more than 143,000 members statewide in support of our most important resource—our children.
Each new school year brings with it the promise of exciting new opportunities and, of course, challenges. The latter is especially true this year as our schools re-open with fewer resources, which typically means larger class sizes and less individualized attention for our students. However, let’s remember this sage advice from Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Don’t be pushed by your problems. Be led by your dreams.”
Often in PTA we spend a lot of time being pushed by the problems our children face, and conversely we spend too little time celebrating our successes. Here are just a few of the things that support from you and many thousands like you enabled Washington State PTA to accomplish over the past five years:
• Led efforts to improve education for all children with the passage of House Bill 2261 in 2009 and Senate Bill 6696 in 2010;
• Helped pass the Simple Majority Amendment to the state constitution in 2006;
• Awarded approximately $300,000 in college scholarships to graduates of Washington public schools;
• Encouraged thousands of children to express themselves artistically through the Reflections Program;
• Trained more than ten thousand volunteer PTA leaders to enhance their leadership and advocacy skills;
These represent the latest in a long list of successes that PTA has enjoyed here in Washington and across the country over the past century, but none of them would be possible without support and active participation by you and millions more like you.
So how do we build on the legacy of the past and continue toward our shared vision that every child’s potential becomes a reality? You have taken the first step by joining your local PTA or PTSA last year, and while your 2010-11 membership is good through October 31st I encourage you to renew your membership now for 2011-12 if you haven’t done so already. Remember that you can still join PTA even if your children are no longer in school!
More important than joining your local PTA is to stay involved in your children’s lives—parent engagement is one of the keys to every student’s success. Of course you can help even more children by becoming active in the school community, through volunteering in the classroom, helping out at events, and yes, being active in the PTA.
Thanks again for your membership and for working with us on behalf of all children, and best wishes for a successful 2011-12 school and PTA year.
Yours in PTA.
Novella Fraser,
President ,WA State PTA
Washington State PTA Board of Directors Votes to Endorse I-1098 and Oppose I-1107
Vancouver, WA The Washington State PTA Board of Directors voted Thursday to endorse I-1098, which would provide over $1 billion in new funding for education and healthcare each year. President Scott Allen explained, "When we worked to pass landmark education reform legislation in 2009, we made a commitment to help find the additional funding needed to support it. Because the initiative assures that seventy percent of the new revenue will be devoted to education, passage of this initiative would go a long way towards helping us fulfill this promise." He added that "it is wise to invest in our future, even in tough economic times".
The Board also voted to oppose I-1107, which would roll back temporary taxes that were passed earlier this year on bottled water and candy. The association supported the new taxes on discretionary items as part of the solution to the state’s significant revenue shortfalls. According to WSPTA Executive Director Bill Williams, "yesterday’s vote reaffirmed our earlier position that raising some revenue to maintain minimal levels of essential services is preferable to an all cuts solution to the budget shortfall that the state faces during the next three years."
Both votes took place during the Board’s summer meeting being held in Vancouver, Washington. Beginning today, more than 160 local and regional PTA leaders will come together for the Association’s annual Leadership Conference being held at the Vancouver Hilton and Convention Center.
About Washington State PTA: Founded in 1905, the Washington State PTA is the largest volunteer organization in the state, with more than 145,000 members in more than 900 local units across the state. WSPTA’s mission is to be a powerful voice for children, a relevant resource for families and communities, and to advocate for the education and well being of all children in pursuit of PTA’s vision that every child’s potential become a reality. More information about WSPTA can be found on its website at www.wastatepta.org.