Until April 12,
Illinois legislators are in their home district offices and they need to see and hear you. Never has it been more important for our members to be involved. We are asking you to participate in Back Home Lobby Days from March 26-April 12. Call your legislators’ home offices, schedule appointments to meet with them and have a talk about what is happening in the state and what you’d like to see them do.
It’s easy to look up your legislators’ contact information. Go to our “Contact Your Legislators” page, then scroll down to the “My Elected Official” section and fill in your address. Your lawmakers’ names will appear. Click on your lawmakers and you can see information about them, including how to contact them. Call their home office and make an appointment sometime between now and April 12.
What do you talk to them about?
Our lobbying message now turns to encouraging lawmakers to support increased revenues in order to Save Our Schools, Save Our State. There are expected to be at least 17,000 education-related layoffs in Illinois. We need increased revenue to prevent this from happening.
These are the points we’d like you to address when talking with your legislators:
- Now is the time to demand that the General Assembly take action to pass a bill that substantially increases funding for public education, K-12 and higher education institutions.
- We need a significant revenue increase now! A 1 percent income tax surcharge is not enough; nothing short of HB 174 or its equivalent is what is required. This can be a difficult sell, but there are effective ways to make this argument, see our Back Home Lobby Days Helpful Tips.
There are five parts to our lobbying script:
- OUR STORIES: Local stories that focus on RIFs and program cuts that will destroy quality education in Illinois classrooms. Nothing is better than real-life examples of how the state’s failure to take charge of education funding is affecting students and their constituents.
- NO EXCUSES! For those who voted “yes” (Senate votes on the bill, House votes on the bill) on two-tier, they have no excuse not to support the much needed revenue. They have the reform they wanted and now we need new revenue to prevent the harmful cuts that will have a devastating impact on public education. If your lawmaker voted “no” on the bill, or “present,” you might want to thank them in person for their support.
- LAWMAKERS’ CHOICE: We believe lawmakers have a stark choice in front of them now – support the Governor’s budget proposal which represents $1.3 billion in cuts to education and the loss of nearly 20,000 jobs or approve a revenue increase this spring – November will be too late for our students.
- OUR SOLUTION: We call on you (lawmaker) to demand of your leaders an opportunity to vote yes for new revenues arising from HB 174 or its equivalent before adjourning this spring legislative session.
- ENCOURAGE THEM: Ask legislators if they will you say “yes” to our schools, our school employees, and our state?