Education Leaders Ask Residents To Contact Elected Officials

PLEASANTON, CA — From PUSD: In a joint letter released last week, Pleasanton Unified School District (PUSD) Superintendent David Haglund, Board President Valerie Arkin, Association of Pleasanton Teachers (APT) President Janice Clark and Classified School Employees Association (CSEA) President Laura Martinez ask community members to join their call to local and state elected officials to provide full and fair funding for public education and Pleasanton students.

PUSD schools, staff and students have received numerous state and national recognitions and its graduates regularly pursue top universities and move on to distinguished career paths to make an impact on their community. Like most California school districts, PUSD receives a majority of its funding from the state. While California is now the fifth largest economy in the world, its schools are funded in the bottom 10% when compared to other school systems in the United States. Read the full letter here.

In February 2018, PUSD Board of Trustees joined school boards across the state in passing a resolution calling for full and fair funding for California public schools. In May, PUSD joined education leaders from across Alameda County in signing a letter to the 2018 California gubernatorial candidates advocating for a significant increase in funding for public education to meet the needs of students and classrooms across the state. Educators, administrators and Board members have joined to appeal the California legislature to raise school funding levels to the national average by 2020, and to the average of the top ten states by 2025. The letter invites community members to contact their local and state elected officials to support the passage of key legislation aimed at improving California’s public education funding model.

“Our 15,000 students in Pleasanton - along with the other 6.2 million enrolled throughout the State - deserve better,” PUSD education leaders state in their letter. “It will take all of us, focused on improving the State’s funding model, to ensure we are able to meet the needs of the next generation of learners. We must fight for what’s right for our children.”

Read the full letter on the District website www.pleasantonusd.net, and find links to more
information and relevant pending legislation listed below:

● AB 39 - Education finance: local control funding formula: funding increase.
● AB 123 - Early childhood education: state preschool program: transitional kindergarten:
access: standards.
● AB 30 - Community colleges: College and Career Access Pathways partnerships.\
● AB 197 - Full-day kindergarten.
● California School Board Association Full and Fair Funding Website

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