Prevent furloughs of DoDEA educators, so that they can continue to educate the children of our brave military members! has been published!

Dear friends,

I wanted to let you know about a new petition I created on We the People,    a new feature on WhiteHouse.gov, and ask for your support. Will you add your    name to mine?  If this petition gets 100,000 signatures by April 08, 2013,    the White House will review it and respond!

We the People allows anyone to create and sign petitions asking the Obama    Administration to take action on a range of issues.  If a petition gets    enough support, the Obama Administration will issue an official response.

You can view and sign the petition here:

http://wh.gov/7vtN

Here's some more information about this petition:

prevent furloughs of DoDEA educators, so that they can continue to    educate the children of our brave military members!

We are asking that you issue an executive order preventing the Department    of Defense Dependent Education Activity from being a part of the DoD civilian    furloughs.  DoDEA provides for the educational needs of over 84,000 military dependents    in 194 schools in 14 districts located in 12 foreign countries, seven states,    Guam, and Puerto Rico. There are over 8,000 proud teachers that provide for    these military dependents who will not be able to do their jobs effectively    if they are forced into these furloughs. Asking these fine educators to give    up 22 days of teaching over the next 5 months is asking our military children    to give up their educations! These cuts that the sequester is requiring of    DoDEA will have a direct impact on our miltiary readiness across the globe.  

An Open Letter to President Obama

Dear President Obama,
I am writing to you today to ask that you issue an executive order preventing the Department of Defense Dependent Education Activity from being a part of the DoD civilian furloughs.
DoDEA provides for the educational needs of over 84,000 military dependents in 194 schools in 14 districts located in 12 foreign countries, seven states, Guam, and Puerto Rico. There are over 8,000 proud teachers that provide for these military dependents who will not be able to do our jobs effectively if we are forced into these furloughs. Asking these fine educators to give up 22 days of teaching over the next 5 months is asking our military children to give up their educations! These cuts that the sequester is requiring of DoDEA will have a direct negative impact on the military readiness of our forces world wide, as military parents will have to find ways to make up for the loss of academic excellence. I personally work with almost 700 students on Fort Jackson that will feel the impact of the sequester if DoDEA teachers are forced to have furloughs. The furloughs, no matter how they would go into effect would touch each and every one of our students. The furloughs if they go into action, will take supplies away from our students, as many of the teachers in DoDEA schools provide classroom supplies for their students. The furloughs will take away valuable planning and collaboration time from our teachers, to better prepare ourselves for teaching the best students in the world. Our military families sacrifice enough for our country without asking them to also sacrifice the education of their children! Please Mr. President act now to stop these furloughs on DoDEA personnel.
Protect the best students in the world, from the best families in the world, the military family from these terrible cuts! Stop DoDEA furloughs!

Sincerely,
P. Cleveland


If you would like to join me in writing to your Representatives and President Obama asking them to stop the furloughs for DoDEA personnel please click here, NEA has a formatted letter requesting that the DoDEA teachers be exempt from the furloughs. You do not need to be a member of NEA, a teacher, nor a member of the military to use this form. Please join me in standing up for our military dependents.

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Please Email your legislative members!

Can I ask a favor of all of my friends?

 

Can you send the following email to your legislature members for me?

 

 Especially those of you who have or have had children that attend DoDEA schools. These furloughs that they are saying we are going to face are going to cut into the education of our military dependents, and as you are aware, some times school is the most dependable thing our kids have going for them (especially as we are still at war and deploying our military members).

The email is as follows, please feel free to change it if you need to.

As a constituent and an education proponent, I urge you to support classifying Department of Defense educators as "critical services" to ensure they are NOT furloughed if the contemplated sequester comes to pass.
...
Classifying DoD educators as "critical services" is consistent with past practice - the services they provide are indeed critical to the future of our nation.

Furloughing educators for even one day would do irreparable harm to the tens of thousands of military dependents who attend DoD schools.

Military dependents deserve better from the government their parents have pledged to protect - with their lives if necessary.

To ensure that DoD educators continue serving military dependents and their families without interruption, I urge you to support designating them as "critical services" exempt from any furloughs.

Thank you for your consideration of my views on this important issue.

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