Charter Next Step Campaign: Engaging Counties and Chambers
Over 80% of school boards around the state have passed formal resolutions calling for charter school funding reform, yet the General Assembly has not acted. To keep up the pressure on lawmakers to enact meaningful charter reform, it’s time to bring in new alliances. PSBA is rolling out, the “Next Step” campaign asking you to engage county commissioners and local chambers of commerce as new stakeholders who can bring added attention to the issue and urge the General Assembly to take action.
Why county commissioners and local chambers? These local government and business leaders work to improve the quality of life for their communities and care about the inefficient use of taxpayer dollars. Pennsylvania’s broken method of funding charter schools results in higher property taxes on homeowners and businesses which reduces spending and raises taxes in the community.
What can you do to take the Next Step? PSBA has created an easy-to-use toolkit that provides resources to help you 1) Identify your county commissioners and local chamber contacts; 2) Educate them on the issue; 3) Ask them to recognize the need for charter reform and urge their legislators to fix the problems with the charter funding formula; and 4) Tell us about your efforts.
The campaign toolkit includes:
- Talking points
- Myth vs fact on the need for charter reform
- Sample letter you can give them to use to contact their legislators
- Sample resolution you can give them to adopt
- Online feedback form
Click here to access the Next Steps campaign toolkit on myPSBA. If you need assistance accessing your myPSBA account, do not worry – email member.info@psba.org for help.
Thank you for helping to broaden the voices calling for charter reform.