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Election Alert
September 29, 2016

California State PTA supports statewide ballot measures

Advocacy is what makes PTA unique, and California State PTA has taken a "support" position on the following initiatives for the November election:

  • PROPOSITION 51 -- SUPPORT School Bonds. Funding for K-12 School and Community College Facilities. Initiative Statutory Amendment. PTA supports safe and up to-date schools. The $9 billion in bond money will go for new construction and modernization of K-12 public schools, charter schools, vocational-education facilities and California community colleges.
  • PROPOSITION 55 -- SUPPORT Tax Extension to Fund Education and Healthcare. Initiative Constitutional Amendment. This initiative extends the temporary personal-income tax increases on high-income earners. Money will go to schools and community colleges, budget reserves/debt payments and health programs. About half of the estimated tax money would go to schools (about $4 billion). If these taxes disappear, it would hurt our already underfunded education system.
  • PROPOSITION 56 -- SUPPORT Cigarette Tax to Fund Healthcare, Tobacco Use Prevention, Research, and Law Enforcement. Initiative Constitutional Amendment and Statute. We know that education and smoking cessation programs work to save lives by preventing teens -- who have been shown to be sensitive to the price of tobacco products -- from choosing to smoke in the first place. This increases the cigarette tax by $2 per pack, with equivalent increase on other tobacco products and electronic cigarettes containing nicotine. The money would go to increase funding for existing health-care programs, tobacco-use prevention/control programs, tobacco-related disease research and law enforcement, physician training, dental-disease prevention programs and administration.
  • PROPOSITION 58 -- SUPPORT SB 1174 (Chapter 753, Statutes of 2014), Lara. The California Education for a Global Economy Initiative (California EdGE). In 1998, voters approved Proposition 227 requiring that all students be taught in English, and that English learners be taught in sheltered English courses. PTA opposed Proposition 227 because it forced English Language Learners (ELLs) to take English-only classes regardless of students’ individual needs. In addition, it took away parents’ right to choose what is best for their children. This initiative deletes the sheltered English provisions. It requires students be taught in programs with access to core academic standards, and that school districts provide effective and appropriate methods for language acquisition. Parents and guardians may choose language-acquisition programs that best meet the needs of their children.
  • PROPOSITION 63 -- SUPPORT Firearms. Ammunition Sales. Initiative Statute. We believe that limiting access to the kinds of guns and ammunition that can kill large amounts of people in a short amount of time is common sense. We must fight gun violence by limiting the types and number of guns and ammunition available to those who would use them to do harm to others. Reasonable, common-sense gun laws reduce gun deaths and injuries, keep guns away from criminals and fight illegal gun trafficking.

More information about PTA's rationale for support can be found online at capta.org.

Thanks again for all you do, and don't forget to vote!
 

 
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