We’ve got six more days to seal the deal on a big win for public schools in the August 4 primary election.
The game plan is simple: Make sure you know who the education-friendly candidates are, tell everyone you know, and vote next Tuesday!
If you have a contested primary race in your district, here’s what we need from you this week:
1. Ask your preferred candidate for campaign post cards highlighting his or her strengths and urging voters’ support in the primary election. Then add a personal note – just a sentence or two – expressing your support, and address and mail them to 25 friends (or more!). Ask three friends to do the same. (Idea for your note: Please vote for Jane Smith on Tuesday – she’s a great public school supporter! Be sure to sign your name.)
2. Offer to make phone calls for your candidate on election eve – next Monday – to remind voters to go to the polls and support your candidate. Polls will be open from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, August 4. Your candidate should be able to provide you with names and phone numbers to call.
Find out if your House and/or Senate district has a primary race here. You can see which candidates are vying to represent your school district here.
Not sure which candidate to support? Don’t waste another minute before finding out – it’s the most important thing you can do for our children this week. Request a meeting with each candidate in your House and Senate districts, and ask them where they stand on important education issues. Get more information about these simple but important meetings and find other ways to support your candidate here. See how candidates answered our members’ questions about public education here.
Remind your friends that the stakes have never been higher for public education. Well-funded privatizers from out of state are attempting to buy a majority in Mississippi’s Legislature by pouring cash into the campaigns of candidates they have recruited specifically for the purpose of privatizing our education system and funneling public education dollars to their for-profit cronies. (See which candidates they are funding here. Read about the Washington D.C. group behind this scheme and how their strategy is playing out in other states here.)
We can beat them, but the August 4 primary is key. Many of the races in which the privatization candidates are competing do not have general election opponents – those races will be decided in the August 4 primary.
Saturday is the deadline for voting absentee in the primary
If you will be out of town or otherwise unable to vote at your polling place on August 4, time is running out to vote absentee. The deadline to cast absentee ballots in person is this Saturday, August 1. Mailed-in absentee ballots must be received in clerks’ offices by 5:00 p.m. on Monday. Click here for more information on voting absentee.
Will you help us ensure a victory for public school children in the primary election? Visit our Election 2015 Candidate Q & A site, check out our Election Toolkit, and start spreading the word about the education-friendly candidate(s) in your community.
Our children can’t vote, but they have an awful lot riding on this election. Don’t we owe them a half hour of our time to ensure that we know which candidates support strong public schools? Take a look at what the candidates have to say, and spread the word. We’ve got one more week. Let’s get this done for our kids!
