Act Now to Support Career Technical Education Funding

CTE (Career Technical Education) is facing very serious threats. The House-passed appropriations bill for FY 2011, H.R. 1, eliminates all funding for the Perkins Tech Prep program, which would mean a loss of $4,049,330 to CTE programs in Illinois.

The Senate is now working on its version of the bill, and you are in a critical position to speak out for CTE and make an impact. Illinois' Sens. Richard Durbin and Mark Kirk are members of the Senate Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee and need to hear from you!

Action Needed:
 

• Call Sen. Durbin's office at 202-224-2152 and Sen. Kirk's office at 202-224-2854 and ask them to fight to restore Perkins funding in the FY 2011 appropriations bill.
• Try to speak to the staff member that works on education and appropriations issues in each office; if that staff member is unavailable, leave a detailed message and try again at a later time.
• Use the talking points and chart on ACTE's Web site to help make the case.
• Be sure to share what losing this funding would mean to your program, students and community.
• Thank the staff member for the time, and report on the conversation to Jamie Baxter at ACTE.
• If you have already called and were able to speak to the education staff person, then recruit other members of your community to call and reinforce your message. Forward this message to colleagues, parents, business/industry advisory members and others who have a stake in CTE programs. We must continue to put pressure on Sen. Durbin and Sen. Kirk -- because so many programs face cuts in this bill, they need to hear from as many constituents as possible on behalf of CTE and Perkins!