As a parent, you are often told that your involvement in your child’s school will help him or her to have a great education, and schools’ efforts at engaging parents to become involved are usually focused on reading with students at home, helping out with class projects, or attending PTCA meetings. Similarly, community members are frequently encouraged to support their local schools by volunteering or serving as sponsors for school events.
As an educator, I can tell you that this sort of involvement makes a big difference in the lives of students. But there is another way you can be involved in improving schools and education for lots of students and it will take a much smaller investment of your time: voting.
Right now, we are in the midst of two votes that will directly affect ANCS students as well as many other students in the city of Atlanta. First, is the “Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax” or E-SPLOST vote. If voters approve the continuation of this penny tax, The Atlanta Public Schools stands to take in about $546 million that go directly towards major renovation projects, building infrastructure improvements, athletic field upgrades, and more over the next five years. And, for the first time ever, APS is including charter schools in APS-owned facilities (like our elementary campus—ANCS owns our middle campus building) in the sites slated to receive E-SPLOST funds. Receiving a portion of E-SPLOST funds would allow us to pay for a major building project—like replacing the roof—without cutting into our operating budget, thereby letting us keep several hundreds of thousands of our dollars in the classroom. Not only will these funds have a positive impact on ANCS students now, they’ll also benefit from them in the future as many APS high schools are also scheduled to see improvements from E-SPLOST funds. You can read more about APS and E-SPLOST here.
ANCS resides in district 59 for the Georgia House of Representatives, and three candidates are vying for that seat after the incumbent, Margaret Kaiser (a parent of ANCS alumni), stepped down from that position following the 2016 legislative session. You can visit the campaign websites for each of three candidates at the links below, and you can also hear directly from the candidates this Thursday evening at an event in East Point:
The state legislature plays a big role in establishing policies that influence the lives of Georgians, including policies affecting students, teachers, and schools. So I encourage you to become informed on the positions of each candidate before you cast your vote.
Early voting is open now for these elections and the regular election day for them is next Tuesday, May 24th. So please get out there and be involved in your local school by voting!
