This hurts children with disabilities and all students.

 More than 80 legislators have now cosponsored our bills.  HB 704 was approved by large bipartisan majorities of the House Education Committee, with two favorable votes of 22-3 and 23-2.  HB 704 was placed into the annual School Code Bill for 2009, HB 11, but the budget mess held up further consideration.

During the last few months, many of the groups endorsing the reforms held successful meetings with legislators.  Most legislators express support for the bills, with very few concerns.  The only real hurdle is the fear by some legislators of making commitments in another deficit year for increased future spending.  Legislators have been reassured when we tell them that HB 704 and SB 940 hold special education spending at stable levels without an increase until 2011-12 (one budget year from now), and will require manageable increases in the following years to reach adequate levels (about $33 million increase per year for six years).

CURRENT STATUS
Representative Sturla, our lead sponsor in the House, is working to bring HB 704 to a vote on the House floor in February or March.
Senator Dinniman, our lead sponsor in the Senate, will ensure that the legislation receives a hearing in the Senate Education Committee in March.

 Governor Rendell has agreed to support HB 704 and SB 940, but is not expected to take the lead.

 Thus, legislation has a good chance for final passage into law by June.  Your help and action are needed to make this happen.

ACTIONS NEEDED
(1) Tell your state representative and senator to support and vote for HB 704 and SB 940.  Find your legislators by clicking here.
(2) Reach out to other groups and ask them to join our list of endorsers.  We currently have 37 endorsing groups, and would like to get over 50 total.
Potential new endorsers may include disability groups, education groups, civil rights groups, and well known advocates.  Individual parents and students are always welcome to help our efforts, but are not really able to “endorse” our work in the way we seek.  Tell Baruch which other groups are interested in endorsing our work.
(3) Include on your own Web site homepage and in your newsletters a link to this Web site.  This will help others to see what is happening and support our efforts.
(4) Invite one of our speakers to talk to the staff and members of your organization about our campaign.  Pam Klipa from the Arc of PA, Janis Risch from Good Schools PA, Baruch Kintisch and Sandy Zelno from Education Law Center, and others are available to participate – by phone or in person – in a meeting of your staff or membership.

David’s full report is here: DRAFT: State Survey of Special Education Funding Formulas.

UPDATE: In the past the week the campaign has made great strides, getting HB 704 introduced with nearly 60 co-sponsors and receiving press coverage on the bill in newspapers throughout the state. The hearing on May 6, however, is crucial for the future of the bill.  Members of the Arc of Pennsylvania, the Disabilities Rights Network, the Education Law Center, and Good Schools Pennsylvania will testify, along with bill sponsor Mike Sturla (D-Lancaster) and education officials, on the importance of a new special education funding and accountability formula.

MAY 6 HEARING: A strong showing of support by families, advocates,  and organizations is important at this stage of the campaign. Please notify your contacts. The hearing is scheduled for 9 a.m. in Room 50 (ground floor) of the Irvis Office Building (attached to the rear east corner of the Capitol). If you are able to attend and need more information please contact the Education Law Center’s Baruch Kintisch at bkintisch@elc-pa.org, (215) 238-6970 ext. 320 or Sandy Zelno at szelno@elc-pa.org, (412) 255-6414. Following the hearing there will be a strategy session on the next steps for our work.

CO-SPONSORS STILL NEEDED: In addition to a strong showing at the hearing, we need to push the number of bill co-sponsors as close to 100 as possible, so please check the current list of sponsors — here — and if you’re local representative has not signed on yet, urge them to do so immediately.

STORIES NEEDED: Finally, as part of our ongoing media outreach we’re looking for parents, educators, even students to tell their stories of how underfunding special education has affected them and how a new funding and accountability formula can help.  If you, or someone you know, would like to share your experience, please contact the Education Law Center’s Brett Schaeffer at bschaeffer@elc-pa.org or (215) 238-6970 ext. 334

CONFERENCE CALLS: We will hold two optional conference calls if you would like a chance to talk by phone, get updates, and prepare for this advocacy work — 4 p.m., Monday, May 4 and 10 a.m., Tuesday, May 5.  The dial-in number is (866) 244-1716 and the code is 5555-604-083 followed by #.
* Continue to check this site for updates and materials on the campaign. You can also subscribe to the site’s RSS feed: http://reformspecialedfunding.org/feed/