The ENL funding for the state is in jeopardy
We are contacting folks in higher education around the state and encouraging them to contact their state representatives.
This outreach is part of an effort by an advocacy group of ESL coordinators. The attached files are from the Indiana Urban Schools group of ESL coordinators. Last week there was a meeting to engender a campaign to offset the governor's recommendation to cut ESL funding from $7million to $3million. Chances are good that there will be more money than this - but it is imperative that individuals and groups do what they can to get the record straight about ESL funding. Since 1999, when funding was first appropriated, the amount per student has dropped from $40/student to $19./student because of the growth of the ENL population in Indiana. Right now we have 409 percent growth!
Please consider contacting your representative as well as members of the House and Senate Education Committees. The attached documents have data you can use for letter writing. HB 1723 will eventually hit the Senate floor as a Senate Finance Bill.
House of Representatives
Indiana House of Representatives
200 W. Washington Street
Indianapolis, IN 46204-2786
(317) 232-9600
(800) 382-9842
Senate
Indiana State Senate
200 W. Washington Street
Indianapolis, IN 46204-2785
(317) 232-9400
(800) 382-9467
To communicate/connect:
Local persons have been identified from each region of the state, so you can coordinate necessary regional contacts. They are:
Northeast:
Wendy Wildman Long: Warsaw At wlong@warsaw.k12.in.us
Emily Kierns: Fort Wayne at emily.keirns@fwcs.k12.in.us
Northwest:
Peggy Harrington: Hammond at PDHarrington@hammond.k12.in.us
North Central:
Tom Good: Goshen at tgood@goshenschools.org
Central:
Marilee Updike: IPS at updikem@ips.k12.in.us
Higher Education:
Sue Blackwell at University of Indy at: blackwells@uindy.edu
Testimony
- If you are willing, let us know
- This will happen twice between now and beginning of April*
*We cannot tell you when... we generally have 48 hours notice or less about when hearings will be held. We will give generalizations as they become available.
Attachments:
- Power pt of the history of funding
- Sample letter to reps and senators
- Data template to fill in your local data for sharing with your stakeholders. We have found that a one page brief is plenty and most compelling.
- Data with Indiana districts that testified this week
Please contact anyone else you think might be interested. I appreciate any time you can give to this endeavor.
Sue
Susan Blackwell, Ph.D.
Coordinator of Secondary Education
Teacher Education
University of Indianapolis
1400 East Hanna Ave.
Indianapolis, IN 46227
317.788.3489 (O)
317.788.2131 (FAX)
blackwells@uindy.edu