Written by Pam Bateman - Principal, Covenant Love Community School

Advocacy Day at the Capitol sounded like a great idea when it was presented at the RISE conference in October. I agreed to attend, expecting to hide in the back of a
group and let others do the talking. Then, in mid-February, I was faced with the reality of contacting legislators myself. Nothing in me wanted to pick up the phone and make
the needed appointments, even though I'd been given detailed instructions. I actually considered cancelling the trip, but ongoing encouragement from my "coach," Merle Skinner,
and other team members enabled me to overcome my strong reluctance. I finally made the calls and discovered that setting up meetings was surprisingly easy to do.

We encourage you to connect with your legislators and let them know how you feel about the current issues. Let them know how important those issues are to you by trying to set up a face to face meeting or a phone meeting with them or one of their staff members. If you would like to do that, but are unsure how to go about doing that, we have set up some basic steps with ideas of what to say. Click here to view those steps. If you have any questions please reach out to us at ACSINYLeaders@champion.org.

We encourage you to use this prayer card; fill in the blanks with your elected officials and please pray regularly for each one of them by name. Click here to download the prayer card or to share it with others.

Save the Date!
The 35th Annual
Religious and Independent School Educators Conference
November 4 & 5, 2019
at the Albany Marriott Hotel

Every year ACSINY hosts a meeting with Christian School Administrators at the conference to share more about what is happening in the NY Coalition. This is a valuable networking opportunity for our schools.

See the following link for more information.
https://www.nyscirs.org/

New York Christian Schools,

Here are some additional notes that might be helpful as you share the Education Tax Credit opportunity with your communities. There is also a flyer that can be downloaded here that you can use as well.

Why should our faith based schools get involved in trying to get the Education Tax Credit become part of New York State legislation?

Dear New York Christian Schools,

The New York State Legislature has proposed an exciting bill in the Assembly, Senate, and the Governor has included in his 2016-17 budget the creation of a state Education Tax Credit of up to $150 million annually to expand educational access and opportunity for children, especially from low-income and working-class families. We are expecting the legislature to make a decision about the Education Tax Credit by Easter or the end of the month, so quick action is important.

We are asking that you share the information about The Education Tax Credit with your school community AND consider attending an Advocacy Day at the Capitol on Monday, March 21with us, the ACSINY Leaders, to help tell our legislators this story.

Christian School Administrators, please come join us for our Advocacy Day for the Education Tax Credit on Monday, March 21st.

Room 933 Legislative Office Building (LOB) is reserved for ACSINY for the 21st from 8:30 - 5:00.

9 -10:00: ACSINY Leaders and school heads: internal meeting and orientation

10:00 – 11 Jim Orientation and landscape.

Advocacy Day 2019: A Recap,

"A very worthwhile day; so glad that I came." "I now feel much more informed on these important issues." "This (substantial equivalency) is a huge issue, more than I realized." "We had a great conversation with our legislator." Such were just a few of the comments following our ACSINY Advocacy Day on March 12th.

ACSINY will periodically release a newsletter with pertinent information regarding upcoming regulations, possible pending legislation, state wide initiatives, and more. These newsletters will also provide a direct opportunity for schools to respond to those issues. Click here to read the very first newsletter.

* If you did not get this newsletter via email and would like to receive them in the future, click here to add your contact info to our database.

Read the attached article about Governor Cuomo's support for the NY Educational Tax Credit