Educate Our State

Educate Our State: Budget Trigger Project

December 7, 2011

"Parents Pressing for Details: How can public schools survive likely mid-year budget trigger cuts?" The Educate Our State: Budget Trigger Project launches to help quantify the possible cuts individual districts will likely have to make if the mid-year trigger cuts happen. The project invites parents to contact their local schools to ask questions, such as, where will the likely cuts come from in our school district budget. Press Release here; link to project page here 

Launch of the new PSA video with celebrity voiceover Valerie Bertinelli 

November 15, 2011

On the tails of the successful Camp Educate parent leadership conference, Educate Our State launches new PSA with celebrity voiceover Valerie Bertinelli, press release here, view the PSA here with detailed information about the many volunteered efforts to produce the PSA here. 

Media mentions for Camp Educate

November 11-13, 2011

The LA Times covered Camp Educate "Parents organize to push for better California public schools" here. KPPC Radio (89.3) covered Camp Educate "California parents meet in LA to organize for state initiative" listen here.

November 10, 2011

'Fed Up Parents "Camp Out" For Better Schools', press release here.

November 1, 2011 

Press release here announcing Delaine Eastin speaking at Camp Educate. Eastin served as California's Superintendent of Public Instruction from 1995-2003 and is a passionate supporter of high-quality public education for all our state's children.

September 21, 2011 

Camp Educate, the two and one-half day training event to help develop parent leaders in the fight for high-quality public education, here.

Media mentions for the "Educate Me!" Town Hall

October 3, 2011 

Media mentions from the San Carlos Town Hall from Redwood City Patch and San Jose Mercury News.

May 24, 2011

Twitter: over 300,000 impressions were logged by www.hashtracking.com at #wakeupCA and #educateourstate

Local Media Coverage of Wake Up California rallies:

Burlingame: Burlingame Patch and Fastestnews.com.

Lamorinda (Lafayette, Moraga and Orinda): KTVU, KGO and Lamorinda Patch.

Long Beach: Belmont Shore Patch

Los Angeles: LA Opinion, KNBC-TV, KABC-TV7, Laist.com, Huffington Post, Studio City Patch, Marvistamom.com, A Driveable Feast blog, Venice Patch Univision, Telemundo and Fox.

(Los Angeles) Sherman Oaks at Milikan Middle School: KABC, KTLA, Sherman Oaks Patch here and here, Babble.com.

(Los Angeles) Studio City: North Hollywood Patch 

Millbrae: TopEd, KRON NBC4, Millbrae Patch and Foster City Patch. Redwood City: Redwood City Patch here and here.

Sacramento: News10 ABC.

San Diego: La Jolla Light, East County Magazine.

San Francisco/Bay Area: Bay City News in the SF Appeal, KGOTV ABC-7, KTVU and KRON NBC.

Santa Barbara: KEYTV ABC, Noozhawk.com.

May 15, 2011

Statewide press release for Wake Up California here and in Spanish here.

May 2011

Media mentions leading up to the Wake Up California rallies include Beyond the Chron (San Francisco), 10Ten News in San Diego, Lamorinda Patch, LamorindaWeb.com, Lamorinda Sun, the Thingstodo.SignonSanDiego.com the Long Beach Gazette, Long Beach Report, the Long Beach Signal Times the Argonaut Newspaper (cover the LA beach cities), the LA Times, MomsLA blog, CBS News/KNX 1070 News Radio, Westwood Charter Real Estate Voice, Mountain View Voice, California Progressive, San Mateo Daily Journal.

May 22, 2011 

Educate Our State Team Leader Annie Bauccio Moore is quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle "Schools get creative to raise needed cash" about the need for school based fundraising to fill in the gaps caused by insufficient state funding. 

May 9, 2011

NBC Bay Area interviewed Crystal Brown "...if the (parent) voice gets loud enough, people will listen."

June 2011 (Preview Copy)

Crytstal Brown from Educate Our State on Comcast News Makers talking about the Parent Movement and the need for all of us to stand up and support California's students. 

April 29, 2011

“All of a sudden, students are having a lot less time with teachers,” said Crystal Brown, a spokeswoman for Educate our State, from the San Francisco Bay Citizen, in an article titled "Class Sizes to Grow, Despite State's $1.3 Billion Program."

Media mentions for the "Let Us Vote!" campaign

March 25, 2011

CBS/KPIX Bay Area covered the response to the "Let Us Vote!" campaign the the 55,000 letters that were sent to Sacramento here. 

March 9, 2011

A press conference was held simultaneously in both San Francisco and Los Angeles announcing 30,000 letters sent. Press release here. Parents from across California have reached out in support of the "Let Us Vote!" campaign to save public education funding.  

Covered by the Associated Press for the San Jose Mercury News "Brown Seeks Delay as Groups Press for Tax Vote", the SF Appeal Online Newspaper "Parents, Educators Call on Lawmakers To Allow Budget Special Election", the Sacramento Bee "School Districts Propose Drastic Budget Cuts That Raise Outcry" and the San Francisco Chronicle, SF Gate Politics Blog "30,000 Parents and One Student Rally in Support of June Taxes." Educate Our State's efforts were highlighted in the California School Boards Assoc. magazine article "The last word: Come together...right now" March 17, 2011. Plus one of our parents used our online Letter to the Editor tool to get a letter published in the Marin Independent Journal on March 28th "Give us a chance to vote."

KQED radio minute 0:30 "For every parent here there are 1,000 behind you."

KQED radio minute 0:45

March 3, 2011

Linda Shaffer from Educate Our State is quoted as saying "we want a chance to vote on this budget" newsreview.com. 

March 1, 2011

There have been various articles supporting the "Let Us Vote!" campaign including an editorial in the Redwood City Patch and article in the San Francisco Examiner.

February 23, 2011 

Press Release announcing 10,000 letters sent for the "Let Us Vote!" campaign.

February 20, 2011 

NBC Bay Area News (channel 3) covered the "Let Us Vote!" campaign as we hit our first milestone: 10,000 letters to California legislators (see video below). Also featured on their news website.

February 17, 2011 

"Super-majority or no, California’s parents will not be shut out. The parent-initiated group Educate Our State has jumped on this first hurdle and has started a “Let Us Vote” campaign." Beyond the Chron  and the California Progress Report.

February 16, 2011 

Press Release for "Let Us Vote!" campaign launch.

Media mentions for Educate Our State

January 25, 2011

Catherine Goddard from Educate Our State interviewed by Louis Freedberg of California Watch "New groups poised to change state education landscape."

January 20, 2011

Linda Shaffer from Educate Our State interviewed by the Bay Citizen and picked up again in the NY Times on the topic of Teacher Evaluations. Watch a news clip and an interview with Linda on NBC Bay Area.

January 4, 2011

Crystal Brown from Educate Our State interviewed on KPFA radio about the pending cuts to public education (minute 39

December 29, 2010

Article titled "Parents, Unions Bristle at Budget Cuts" from the The Bay Citizen quotes Educate Our State saying, “Our schools are already in crisis”.

December 14, 2010

Press Release from Educate Our State and Support California Kids announcing that the two groups have joined forces.

In order to continue developing parent leadership in the pursuit of educational reform, Support California Kids will be joining forces with Educate Our State.

November 17, 2010

Crytstal Brown from Educate Our State on NBC Class Action with Eric Heins from the CTA (California Teachers Assoc.) and Terry Moe from the Hoover Institute at Standford.

October 2010 

Comcast Newsmakers interview with team leaders Linda Shaffer and Crystal Brown on plans to take the Educate Our State campaign statewide. 

August 16, 2010

CaliforniaWatch.org article about the need for strong parent groups in the fight for better education. Picked up by the Huffington Post and UCLA/IDEA too.

August 4, 2010

Press Release from Educate Our State "PTA Moms Launch Statewide Campaign to Improve Public Schools."

Educate Our State looks to connect the growing number of parent groups and organizations that have popped up across the state, creating a larger more meaningful effort to put pressure on Sacramento and force change.

July 12, 2010

Press Release from Educate Our State supporting the Campaign for Quality Education lawsuit. 

July 12, 2010

Educate Our State was present at the lawsuit filing, article from the San Francisco Chronicle here.

July 12, 2010

Lawsuit filed over public school spending, Lyanne Melendez

ABC Channel 7 News video clip here, transcript below:

OAKLAND, CA (KGO) -- There is new pressure on California to release more money for education. Another lawsuit was filed today calling for changes in the way the state pays for its public schools.

A new lawsuit claims California demands high marks from its public schools, but doesn't provide enough funds to support those high academic standards. It was filed in Alameda County on Monday by a coalition of education activists.

"We aren't delivering fairly. It's not based on a quality education and not based on individual student needs," John Affeldt from Public Advocates said.

This is the second lawsuit filed against California and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger seeking more money to fund education.

The two lawsuits are almost identical. The first one was filed primarily by nine school districts and the PTA of California. This second lawsuit was introduced by a number of grassroots organizations that represent underserved communities.

"The most affected communities of color, low income," Affeldt said.

California already ranks among the lowest in the U.S. when it comes to per pupil spending. And now because of the economic downturn, the state has cut $17 billion from public schools over the past two years.

The consequences are being felt in the classroom with a higher number of students for every teacher.

Cece Kaufman is with Educate our State, a parent-led organization focusing on reforming public education.

"It is very hard to teach to every single level when you are teaching to that many kids," she said.

Through his spokesperson Schwarzenegger said, "Throwing more money into our broken education system will not benefit students unless it is accompanied by extensive and systemic reforms."

These lawsuits seek to force the Legislature to figure out how much it really costs to educate kids in California in order to keep up with these high standards.