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Subject: Our kids and our schools

Dear Legislators:
 
Here I am this Saturday morning sifting through my emails from the various levy committee and vote yes committee chairpersons, determining what I need to send on to the parents at my school to make sure they get the word out about voting yes for the District 191 referendum this November 6th.  I have three children, one in 2nd grade, one in kindergarten and a two year old.  I work full time as a nurse practitioner taking care of kids with cancer at Children's Hospitals of Minnesota.
 
I am exhausted.  Not because of my job.  Not because of my family.  But because I read emails and craft letters after they go to sleep and before they wake.  And what has really taken it's toll is that I attend meetings, make copies and try to catch parents and neighbors whenever I can to make sure they have the appropriate information about the levy and that they are voting.  During our fall break, I spent two entire evenings sitting at a levy committee table and engaging parents in conversations about the levy.  My children were at home with their father enjoying their fall break. I got home after they were in bed.
 
Why do I do this?  Because I believe in children and in the need to appropriately educate them so they can be sitting in your seats in the future helping to make decisions for our state and country.  I will not go into details about the potential class sizes in our schools or the programs cuts that will need to be made if the levy doesn't pass, because YOU KNOW THAT ALREADY!!!  Which is the saddest part of all of this. 

Right or wrong, mandates have been put on school systems and they need to be funded appropriately.  These funds need to come from you and not from us going begging door to door for yes votes.  We elected you to do that job.  Instead of you looking "bad" asking for tax increases, now we do.  We are getting the anger from people who don't want to see their property taxes raised and you are letting us sit in the hot seat. 

My question to you is not do you care, because I believe you do, but do you care enough to make it a priority and to actually take responsibility for it?  It may mean saying "I was wrong about needing to not raise taxes."  I don't know any of us who have not had to admit that they were wrong and that something they thought they could accomplish wasn't going to be possible, especially if that statement or promise compromises the potential of our children.

It is the children that suffer now.  It will be society that suffers later.  But by then, you may not be in the position you are in and it won't fall on your shoulders.  Please consider taking on some of that burden now to prevent our children from carrying it. 

I will continue to look at emails every morning, between taking care of patients during the day and at night before I go to bed.  I will attend the meetings, put flyers in my window on Halloween (to see if I have missed talking to someone in my neighborhood) and deliver literature and make phone calls on the weekend before the vote.  I will do this because I care about my children's education and the future of our country. 

We parents, who are passionate about our children's education, will help in any way we can to make sure that they get an education that will allow them to become whatever they want to be.  Please help us do that by letting us be the parents at home, room parents, fundraisers and teacher supporters.  We do not want to be raising funds for basic needs for our children.  This should come from you.

I apologize for not writing each of you individually, but I honestly do not have the time to do so.  Please supply funding for education so that every few years, I am not sitting in this same spot.

Sincerely,

Vicki K. Schaefers
Burnsville, MN