Teach the Vote's Week in Review: Feb. 26, 2016

Date Posted: 2/26/2016 | Author: Jennifer Mitchell, CAE
Today is the last day to vote early in the critical 2016 primary election. Election day is Tuesday, March 1. Many races will be completely decided as of Tuesday night, and those outcomes, especially in several legislative primary races, will impact educators significantly in 2017. ATPE urges all educators to get out and vote for pro-public education candidates today or Tuesday.
Read more of this week's headlines:
Early voting ends tonight. Election day is Tuesday.
There's still time for the education community to make the difference in this important election. Take advantage of the many resources available to voters from ATPE and Teach the Vote:- Know where your candidates stand on public education and vote for candidates who will support your profession and your students! Click on the 2016 Races button now to view candidates' voting records, their responses to the ATPE candidate survey, lists of their major endorsements, and more.
- Do you know where to go vote on Tuesday? Get answers to frequently asked questions about primary voting here in our "Things You Should Know..." post.
- Learn about ballot propositions on the primary ballots that will help shape each party's platform. Proposition #3 on the Republican ballot is aimed at taking away educators' right to use payroll deduction for their voluntary professional membership dues. Be an informed voter by reading our recent blog post about the ballot propositions.
- Remember that a majority of the races in Texas will be decided by this primary election happening now. Many of Tuesday night's winners will face no opposition in November, meaning that your votes are most desperately needed now!
- Follow @TeachtheVote and @TXEducatorsVote on Twitter for election-related news and tips.
- Visit TexasEducatorsVote.com for additional election resources from our coalition partners. Remind your colleagues of the importance of voting in this primary election, and see if they need help getting to the polls.
Congress held several meetings this week related to the new Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the proposed federal education budget, and the new head of the U.S. Department of Education (ED). ATPE Lobbyist Kate Kuhlmann and our Washington, D.C. lobby team followed all the action and provided a full report. Read Kate's latest blog post on the federal developments here.



As a reminder, there are more opportunities coming up for you to join with members of your community to talk about public education and the challenges and opportunities it faces. The State Board of Education's community conversation series on student testing and school accountability continues in March with events in Kilgore and Amarillo. The meetings are designed to elicit local community feedback for SBOE members to share with the Texas Commission on Next Generation Assessments and Accountability. The next event will be in Kilgore on Tuesday, March 1, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Education Service Center for Region 7. Register for the Kilgore event here. Find additional information about the community conversations here.
VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!

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