Cut and Paste Letters for Your State Representative and State Senator

Find Your Representative here:  http://house.michigan.gov/mhrpublic/

If your are in the 73rd District, 

Michigan Representative Peter MacGregor, 73rd District

PeterMacGregor@house.mi.gov

Phone: (517) 373-0218
Toll Free: (855) 347-8073

Hello Representative MacGregor--

I am writing to tell you that I oppose HB5411, The Third Grade Retention Law, currently coming up for a vote in the House Education Committee.  I see this as mandating programs while cutting money going to public schools.  Our district had to cut programs for early elementary learning.  While these programs will now be mandated under this law to prevent large numbers of third graders from flunking, our schools will have to take money from other programs that provide for well-rounded children.

 

Many factors go into a child's education.  Flunking a child who tests poorly could be damaging.  Whether my third grade child moves on to the next grade should be a decision made between me, my child's teacher and the school.  Lansing should not be poking its nose into this decision. 

I am also writing to tell you that I oppose HB 5112, The School Grading Law, currently coming up for a vote in the House Education Committee.  Metrics are fine, but "grading" our schools based on one test score is misleading.  A full dashboard which shows many different aspects of a school would receive my full support.  This dashboard could include student progress, test scores, access to the arts, extracurricular programming, safety records and other areas.  If a truly representative dashboard can't be implemented, please keep the more flexible Michigan Department of Education system in place.  Please stop changing the rules every few months.

Thank you for considering the opinion of your constituent.

Regards,

Find your state senator here: http://www.senate.michigan.gov/fysenator/fysenator.htm

If you are in the 86th district, your Senator is Mark Jansen.  senmjansen@senate.michigan.gov  

(517) 373-0797

 

Hello Senator Jansen—

Please oppose the expansion of the EAA.  We do not need Lansing taking over schools all over our state.  While limited to 50 schools, EAA is still the largest school district in the state with about 50,000 students.  The EAA model is not working.  EAA parents are not satisfied.  Too many resources are being diverted to this district.  Please keep Lansing out of our schools.  We elect local school board members to oversee our schools.

Thank you for considering your constituent.

Regards,