Arizona PTA 2011-2012 Legislative Platform

[Harry Mathews]

Arizona PTA 2011-2012 Legislative Platform

Arizona PTA and its local PTA/PTSA units are members of the largest volunteer child advocacy association in the nation. Our association provides parents and families with a powerful voice to speak on behalf of every child while providing the best tools for families and communities to help their children to be successful students. Arizona and National PTA work in cooperation with many state and national education, health, safety and child advocacy groups, as well as state and federal agencies to collaborate on projects that benefit children and bring valuable resources to our members.

Public Education
AZ PTA:

• Will work toward the creation of sound and sustainable public education revenue streams necessary and appropriate to invest in quality teaching and learning that meets high standards.
• Opposes any public funds being funneled to private or religious schools in any form including, tuition tax credits and vouchers.

• Opposes the use of high stakes testing as the only criteria to determine eligibility for grade promotion or graduation.
• Supports programs that promote public awareness of the arts and arts education and the integration of the arts in school curriculum.
• Supports public schools by ensuring that the historic school trust lands are allowed to fulfill the purpose for which they were originally created and advocate for sound financial management of the school trusts to provide the maximum benefit to the children in public education who are the beneficiaries of those trusts, and shall work to ensure that these funds do not supplant existing education funding.

Immigrant Children and Families

AZ PTA:

• Supports legislation that advocates for the rights of ALL children regardless of their heritage and/or immigration status or that of their parents. These rights include; confidentiality of school records, equal access to quality public education, adequate food and shelter, and basic health care services.
• Opposes legislation to require schools, teachers and medical institutions from determining the citizenship status of a child prior to admittance to school or provision of health care.
• Opposes any effort to deny full citizenship to any child born in theUnited States.

Health and Safety

AZ PTA:

• Opposes any form of corporal punishment in schools and all other institutions, public and private, where children are cared for and educated and supports legislation to outlaw the practice.

• Supports legislation requiring that a bike helmet be worn by children.
• Supports legislation to abolish the use of pick up truck cargo areas for passengers.
• Supports policies and programs that address the prevention, intervention and elimination of bullying.
• Supports and promotes the importance of healthy eating among children and youth to combat the growing national epidemic of childhood obesity.
• Supports educating the public on firearm safety as well as requiring making guns inaccessible to children and the use of a device to lock guns to prevent children from having access to firearms and to reduce the risk of accident, suicide and homicide.
• Supports the allocation of funding to mandate licensed, registered nurses to be on duty at the appropriate ratio in each school district.

Parent Involvement

AZ PTA

• Supports comprehensive and strong parent and family involvement policies at the state and local levels that seeks to involve parents at every level of education and will effectively involve and include parents/families in the education of their children.
• Encourages teacher training programs to develop and require for graduation specific training to effectively involve and include parents/families in the education process of their children
• Supports school based decisions such as school policies, curriculum decisions, and all programs related to the public schools are made with the input of parents.
  
  

AZPTA will monitor all legislation and will take a position to support or oppose any bill that enhances or detracts from the AZPTA Legislative Platform.

The AZPTA 2011-2012 Legislative Platform is developed by the AZPTA Legislative Issues Committee and approved by the AZPTA Board of Directors. The Legislative Platform represents AZPTA’s current legislative priorities. It is based on the public policy statements and resolutions of the AZPTA.

(adopted by the 2011 AZPTA Delegate Assembly on June 4, 2011)

http://azpta.org/advocacy/legislation.html

[shimauma]

"Supports educating the public on firearm safety as well as requiring making guns inaccessible to children and the use of a device to lock guns to prevent children from having access to firearms and to reduce the risk of accident, suicide and homicide."

 

How they gonna prevent this one? search our houses??

 

It's all a bunch of nanny state libturd smack.  I hope they fail.

[Merrianne Geisdorf]

The parent involvement part sounds good, especially since we're seeing a lot of schools that discourage parental involvement. However, they want "sound and sustainable public education revenue streams," "opposes ..... tuition tax credits and vouchers," no determining citizenship before allowing children in school, oppose any effort to deny full citizenship to any child born in theUnited States. Yes, they need to fail!