July 16, 2020

One more call to make to preserve the Early Literacy Intervention Initiative

The Education Committee preserved funding for early literacy, but there’s still one call to make.

We have good news. Last month, we asked you to call the DC Council’s Education Committee, urging them to protect funding for the Early Literacy Intervention Initiative. We are thrilled to share that the Education Committee has restored the $500,000 of funding in the FY21 budget and included some additional funds. This increases the Early Literacy Intervention Initiative funding to $2.5 million (up from $1.6 million in 2019 and $2.1 million in 2020). Thank you so much for advocating for early literacy!

We need your help one more time before the full DC Council votes on the budget on July 28.

If you are a DC resident, please take a minute to call your Ward representative to let them know you support the Education Committee’s budget markup. If you have a few extra minutes, please also call the At-Large representatives and Chairman Mendelson.

We have provided their numbers and a short script below. You can look up your Ward here: https://dcatlas.dcgis.dc.gov/mar/

Ward Representatives:

• Ward 1: Brianne Nadeau: (202) 724-8181, bnadeau@dccouncil.us
• Ward 2: Brooke Pinto: (202) 724-8058, bpinto@dccouncil.us
• Ward 3: Mary Cheh: (202) 724-8062, mcheh@dccouncil.us
• Ward 4: Brandon Todd: (202) 724-8052, btodd@dccouncil.us
• Ward 5: Kenyan McDuffie: (202) 724-8028, kmcduffie@dccouncil.us
• Ward 6: Charles Allen: (202) 724-8072, callen@dccouncil.us
• Ward 7: Vincent Gray: (202) 724-8068, vgray@dccouncil.us
• Ward 8: Trayon White, Sr.: (202) 724-8045, twhite@dccouncil.us

At-Large Representatives:

(Note: if you have time to call the At-Large representatives, please prioritize Chairman Mendelson and Councilmember Silverman as Councilmembers Bonds, Grosso, and White are on the Education Committee.)

• Chairman Phil Mendelson: (202) 724-8032, pmendelson@dccouncil.us
• Elissa Silverman: (202) 724-7772, esilverman@dccouncil.us
• Anita Bonds: (202) 724-8064, abonds@dccouncil.us
• David Grosso: (202) 724-8105, dgrosso@dccouncil.us
• Robert C. White, Jr.: (202) 724-8174, rwhite@dccouncil.us

Script:

Hello. My name is _______ . I live in Ward ___ and I am calling to let Councilmember _______ know that I support the Education Committee’s markup of the FY21 budget, which protects funding for the Early Literacy Intervention Initiative. [IF APPLICABLE: I volunteer as a reading partner at [school] where I tutored a student once a week.]

Reading Partners will serve hundreds of students at 19 DC public and charter schools this coming school year and receives critical funding from the Early Literacy Intervention Initiative. Keeping this funding in the budget helps ensure that hundreds of elementary school students in DC can continue to receive the evidence-based literacy interventions they need to succeed in school and in life. Thank you for your time.