Sample Letter About Florida Education Cuts

Please send this to your lawmakers about education cuts.

Dear <NAME>,

As a parent of a Florida student, I am outraged by the budget cuts that our state is proposing on education.  These cuts hurt the very future of not only our state, but our country as a whole.

Commissioner Eric J. Smith's op-ed, "Florida education: We see progress on all fronts," on the state of education claims that Florida has made tremendous progress given the hand that the state has been dealt.

While the state ranks near the top on reporting, standards and accountability, its record on outcomes is less than stellar. Florida rates a C across the board on establishing a foundation for education and on college and early childhood readiness, plus a D on student achievement. Florida's rating on the National Assessment of Educational Progress is average for middle schools and near the bottom for high schools compared to other states, but its scores for elementary reading and minority students are among the top.

These disparities stem from the state's abysmal record on school spending, on which it ranks third to last. We can do better and we should, but further cuts are not the answer.

Our children deserve to not be cut back, they deserve to have a safe environment to learn in where the teachers are not overworked, underpaid and left with too many children in the classroom to be able to effectively teach of them to the best of their abilities.

Our teachers deserve to know that the work they are putting into our children each and every day is noticed, appreciated and that they are not going to be pushed aside while lawmakers run all over the state and country on tax payer dollars that could have been used to fund our schools instead.

It's time our lawmakers stop telling our children and their educators no and start instead telling others no when they are asked to go to various states or to run down to Miami to discuss a budget deal, isn't our capital city Tallahassee anyway?

Priorities need to be made and our children need to start coming first.

Thank you,