Saturday Success!

WE DID IT! The House state budget no longer threatens to shut down our schools. Thanks to your calls, your emails and letters, the members of the state House Ways & Means Committee voted to restore current funding to all online public school programs. The legislature will continue to meet until they complete passage of legislation and reach final agreement on the state budget. Some of us will keep monitoring everything until the end, called "sine die", scheduled for March 11.

Our phone calls and letters saved our schools after a wild wake-up call that threatened to shut down our schools. To protect our online public schools in the long-term we need to document why online learning works for us and then share it with lawmakers, budget writers, media folks and even our neighbors. Having been educated in traditional classroom settings, they often picture students parked in front of computers all day.  It is hard for many adults to imagine how an online student does a science experiment, goes on a field trip with fellow students or does messy art projects. They can learn from you.

We've set this up so you can just click here http://waonlinefamilies.org/stories/  to email your story for us to share with lawmakers both now and in the future. Every experience counts. And, as you know, a picture is worth a thousand words. We'd absolutely love to have you find, or take, a photo of your child to go with your story!

Once we've collected hundreds of stories from across the state we'll find fun, effective ways to share them with lawmakers both in print and on our website. Please click here to write your story now: http://waonlinefamilies.org/stories/

Thanks for a successful, though stressful, week saving our online public schools. I'm proud to be part of such an impressive team!