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Advocacy Committee Activities
Advocacy Update
The Maryland State Senate and House are both considering bills to increase the funding for Adult Education in Maryland. Maryland TESOL supports this increased funding. We encourage you to contact your state senators and representatives.
For more information and samples of letters you can model when you write your elected leaders, click here.
Advocacy Day took place this past summer in Washington D.C. The following
information was shared by the Advocacy Office of TESOL:
Background Briefs for Advocacy Issues: NCLB
Issue Brief, Student
Visas Issue Brief, WIA
Issue Brief
Talking Point Presented on Capitol Hill: AdultEd,
NCLB, and SEVIS
Members of the Maryland TESOL Advocacy Committee met on February 23
to compose a letter of support for increased
state investment in Adult Education services in Maryland. The letter
supported Senate Bill 650 and House Bill 1130: FUNDING FORMULA FOR ADULT
EDUCATION AND LITERACY GRANTS. Passage of this bill would result in
a $26.5 million increase in funding for Adult Education over the next
five years. Maryland TESOL Board members felt it was important to support
this legislation because 47% of adults currently on the waiting list
for adult education services are English language learners. Copies of
these letters are available here (Letter
1, Letter 2).( Action
on Adult Ed. Bill)
Members who are interested in supporting this legislation through personal
letters or calls to their legislators can educate themselves about the
issues by referring to a report from the State Superintendent’s
Panel on Excellence in Adult Education entitled Stepping Up to the Future.
This report is available at http://www.marylandpublicschools.org/MSDE/divisions/careertech/adult_ed/
(list
of Senate Members in BUDGET & TAXATION COMMITTEE) (list
of House of Delegates in WAYS & MEANS COMMITTEE)
Anyone interested in TESOL action alerts or details about current legislation,
elections, and positions of members of Congress can access this information
easily through the TESOL website.
From the TESOL website one can access the TESOL U.S. Advocacy Action
Center. The Action Center can also be found at http://capwiz.com/tesol.
Additional links from the Advocacy Center provide contact information
for senators and representatives. Once a zip code is entered, the site
provides the names and addresses of local legislators. If you would
like to be more proactive about issues related to education and services
for immigrants and English language learners, check out the Advocacy
Action Center.
One more advocacy tip: Track bills as they progress through Congress
by going to http://thomas.loc.gov.
This site also allows readers to see how senators or representatives
vote on an issue and provides information about the Senate and House
schedules.
Note the Following Interesting Web sites:
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The ACLU is promoting a campaign to lobby for full funding
of the Thornton Commission.
Please go to this site and add your voice. http://www.capwiz.com/mdaclu/officials/state/?state=MD
After posting your message, please contact Myles Hoenig (see address
on MDTESOL board list) so your vote can be logged.
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