23 November 2010

Help Save the National Writing Project and Prairie Lands Writing Project!

Hello friends,

I'm completely uninterested in a political debate about this. In fact, save yo' political comments for yo' momma(ments). See what I did there? Anyway-

Our government is voting on the Coburn Amendment very soon (Wednesday, perhaps?). This, which will undoubtedly be framed to us as the end of unnecessary earmarks, would completely end any and all earmarks that have ever happened in the history of ever (I'm not sure if this is a hyperbole or not). The bad part is that, technically, the National Writing Project and, therefore, the Prairie Lands Writing Project is an earmark from decades ago. The National Writing Project and its dozens upon dozens of local sites nationwide (including PLWP) provides fantastic and necessary professional development for teachers in the development of a passion for writing and, more importantly for you, the quality teaching of writing and developing that passion in students. NWP and PLWP have impacted, literally, thousands upon thousands of students nationwide. This would negatively impact our nation's students who are already negatively impacted by so so much.

PLWP personally reignited my own writing and has pushed me to be the best teacher and writer I can be. I developed friendships with fellow professionals who have positively impacted me personally and positively impacted my students through our collaboration. Moreover, hundreds of people across the country would lose jobs over this, including my friend Vickey's mother. Please call your senator TODAY and tell them to vote no on the Coburn Amendment.

Call Sen. Bond: (202) 224-5721
Call Sen. McCaskill: (202) 224-6154

Of course if you don't live in Missouri, please google your senator's office number and call them.

I called yesterday and was super surprised to find an actual person on the line. Fully expecting a machine, I stuttered and stumbled through a "ppppppplease vote no on that uhhhhh... Coburn Amendment thing." It probably wasn't that bad, but it wasn't good. I'm calling back today in full hopes of redeeming myself.

I'm going to make the following analogy to my senators today:

The government has decided we have a serious problem with forest fires. To solve this problem, they are deciding to eliminate every tree because then we could start over. It's the same thing here. Earmarks are a problem, so let's get rid of all of them while completely ignoring that some of them are for really excellent programs that help people and give people their livelihood.

Aaaaanyway, like I said, I am in no way interested in being political about this. I'm just looking to save a program that made me a better teacher, writer, and person and has done that same thing for thousands of teachers nationwide.

1 comment:

  1. I participated in the National Writing Project in Mississippi. It would be sad to see it go.

    ReplyDelete