Contact Your Legislator and Urge Them To Vote "No"!

Click here to send an online letter urging your state senator to vote "NO!" on the Senate Budget Plan

You also can call your senator’s office toll-free:  1-888-836-8368. Just tell the operator your senator’s name and ask to be put through. (Need to find out who represents you? Click here.) If the office is closed you can leave a message. Your message can be very simple: Vote no on the Senate budget plan, Texas can do better! If you have time, you can make these points:

• This budget plan is not as bad as the House version, but it is still very, very bad. The Senate version cuts $4 billion from state aid to school districts and another $1 billion plus in grant funding for programs such as full-day pre-kindergarten would be wiped out.
• Our students under this bill would have fewer teachers, larger classes, and fewer supporting services for those most in need.
• This budget, if enacted, would represent a major retreat from the state’s commitment to public education and the schoolchildren of Texas.

Texas can do better. The legislature has many alternatives: full use of the Rainy Day Fund (this bill would leave $5 billion to $6 billion in this reserve fund unused, according to its author, Senator Steve Ogden); close tax loopholes and develop new revenue sources in order to deal with the structural shortfall of $5 billion a year in school funding that was created by the legislature with the botched tax overhaul passed in 2006.