Help the Early Childhood Workforce!

From Winning Beginning, NY, an early childhood education advocacy group:

Early childhood advocates from across the state met recently with legislators in Albany for Early Childhood Workforce Development Day to urge passage of important loan forgiveness legislation.

Assembly bill 6759 and Senate bill 4378 would enable the early childhood workforce to pursue more education and credentials and improve the quality of the education our youngest learners receive.

Unfortunately, this legislation is currently stalled in the Codes and Higher Education Committees – and WE NEED YOUR HELP TO MOVE THESE BILLS TO THE FLOOR FOR A VOTE!

Here's what YOU can do:

1. Simply call your Senator Dean Skelos at (518) 455-3171 and your Assembly Member Harvey Weisenberg at (518) 455-3028.

2. Tell them:



To support Assembly bill 6759/ Senate bill 4378, loan forgiveness legislation for the early childhood workforce.


That quality child care requires qualified professionals working with our children.


This legislation would allow the early childhood workforce to continue their education and become better educators - and benefit children in their programs.
3. After you've made your calls, click here and report back to us!

These two bills would make awards of up to a total of $25,000 available for professionals who have engaged in 12 months of service as a child care professional in a licensed day care facility and who have an outstanding loan. Math, science and special education teachers have loan forgiveness programs—why not those who teach our youngest learners?

Every call makes a difference. Alert parents in your programs, friends, colleagues and neighbors to join the Call-in for Loan Forgiveness TODAY! Direct them to the Winning Beginning NY website for call-in instructions so they too can have a voice!


Sincerely,

Jenn O’Connor, Winning Beginning NY

Stop CBS's Anti-War Censorship

This is the ad that got General Batiste fired. Worth a look!

From MoveOn.org:

It took CBS two weeks to fire Don Imus for calling a college women's basketball team "nappy headed hos," but it only took them two days to fire respected retired Major General John Batiste for speaking out against the president on the war.

Batiste, a Republican, commanded troops in Iraq in 2004 and 2005. He left the Army so that he could speak out against the president's reckless policy in Iraq, and CBS hired him as a part-time consultant to comment about it.1 Last week, he appeared in a VoteVets.org TV ad speaking out against the president on Iraq. Just two days later, CBS fired him.2

It's censorship, pure and simple. We're aiming to get over 100,000 messages demanding that CBS re-hire Major General John Batiste by the end of the week. Can you take a moment to add your name? Add your name to the petition.


CBS says they fired Major General Batiste because he engaged in advocacy—but they're holding him to a different standard than their other consultants.

For example, former White House communications director Nicolle Wallace is a consultant to CBS and consistently uses her position to push White House talking points.3 It was even reported that she was advising the McCain campaign, yet CBS did nothing when she appeared as a consultant on their network to promote his candidacy.4

Plus, the Brookings Institution's Michael O'Hanlon also appeared on CBS as a consultant while advocating in favor of President Bush's escalation plan.5

CBS is sending a message that you can't be a consultant to their network if you're critical of President Bush and the Iraq war. That's political censorship and CBS needs to hear groundswell of outrage from concerned viewers right away.

Can you sign the petition demanding that CBS re-hire Major General Batiste?

Major General John Batiste is not the first general to speak out against the president on Iraq. Recently a number of generals and military leaders have spoken out against President Bush's failed policy—including Reagan's former NSA director, General William Odom, Vietnam veteran Major General Mel Montano and another former general from Iraq—retired Major General Paul Eaton.6

These generals must be heard, not censored for speaking the truth.

Thanks for all you do,

–Nita, Noah, Karin, Jennifer and the Moveon.org Political Action Team
Tuesday, May 15th, 2007