March 2, 2006
ASK YOUR SENATORS TO SIGN LETTER SUPPORTING PERKINS FUNDING
WHAT: Sens. Burns (R-MT), Clinton (D-NY), Collins (R-ME) and Durbin (D-IL) are circulating a “Dear Colleague” letter to their fellow Senators urging their colleagues to join them on a letter in support of preserving funds for Perkins programs. This bi-partisan letter will be sent to Senators Judd Gregg (R-NH) and Kent Conrad (D-ND) who are Chairman and Ranking Member, respectively, of the Senate Budget Committee.
The deadline for signatures is the end of the day on Monday, March 6th.
The Congressional budget and appropriations process is underway, and FY 2007 promises to be a tight budget year for discretionary programs like Perkins. With the President’s proposed elimination of the program, it is more important than ever that this kind of bi-partisan support for Perkins be demonstrated by Congress.
ACTION NEEDED: Call both of your Senators starting TODAY, and
- Urge them to sign the Burns, Clinton, Collins, Durbin “Dear Colleague” supporting funding for Perkins.
- Let them know that Perkins is working well in your community, and that career and technical education makes positive investments in America’s future by providing relevant learning experiences for students at both the secondary and postsecondary levels, effective and proven links to skills-building and enhanced academic opportunities and improved employment outcomes; and that employers in your local area continue to need well-trained workers with good skills to compete in the 21st century economy.
If your Senators wish to sign on to the letter, have them contact the legislative assistant handling education issues in one of these offices: Sens. Burns, Clinton, Collins or Durbin.
To find contact information for your Senators, please visit ACTE’s Legislative Action Center at: http://capwiz.com/acte/home/.
Please note that members of the Budget Committee often will not sign on to letters that are addressed to the Budget Committee. Therefore, if your Senators sit on the Budget Committee and are not willing to sign on, it does not necessarily mean they do not support funding for career and technical education (CTE). Encourage them to support funding for Perkins and thank them for their support. The letter is addressed to Senators Gregg (R-NH) and Conrad (D-ND), so they will be unlikely to sign on, but if you live in New Hampshire or North Dakota, we encourage you to continue to work with these Senators to demonstrate the value of CTE in your states and to thank them for their continued support. To view a list of members of the Senate Budget Committee, please visit http://budget.senate.gov/republican/NewAboutComm.htm.
We encourage you to also forward this alert to others who are concerned about funding for CTE.
For more information on federal funding for career and technical education, please visit http://www.acteonline.org/policy/legislative_issues/funding.cfm.
As always, we appreciate your efforts!
