We have had a great start to our year; we hope yours has been the same. Read on for updates including a 2009 Cyberschools' Day at the Capitol recap, some information regarding our friends in Ohio and other updates.  Keep your eyes on your inbox and on the Colorado Coalition of Cyberschool Families (CCCF) website for updates and exciting opportunities for members. 

Day at the Capitol Recap

We would like to thank all the families from across the state for turning out for 2009 Cyberschools' Day at the Capitol on February 24^th! Attendance was estimated by our local Fox channel at 1,600 - a new record!

A special thank you goes out to all of our speakers who addressed the crowd for the day as well. A big thank you goes out our elected officials who stopped by to speak at our Day at the Capitol: Colorado State Board of Education member Randy DeHoff, Senate President Peter Groff and Speaker of the House Terrance Carroll.

Not only did we have record attendance, we had unprecedented participation from 12 of the 14 full-time, multi-district cyberschools in the state, including some representation from a few single-district programs. We had a lot of support and participation from a diverse cross section of schools the day of the event. 

A quick recap of the day's events:

We provided a number of classes, speakers and activities for attendees to participate in throughout the day, including:

• Talking to your legislator presented by Eric Anderson of SE2
• Remarks by Randy DeHoff, Charter School Institute, State Board of Education
• Remarks by Senate President Peter Groff
• State government class presented by Rick Weaver, COVA father
• Remarks by Pam Benigno, Education Policy Center Director, Independence Institute
• 300 capitol tours including legislative, historical and dome tour
• Opportunities to observe from the galleries
• Cyberschool rally and lunch on the West Steps
• Remarks by Speaker of the House Terrance Carroll
• Remarks by Lori Cooney, president of Coalition
• Remarks by Sean Cooney, COVA student
• Remarks by Judith Stokes, president Colorado Cyberschools Association

If you couldn't make it out for Day at the Capitol this year, please write to your legislator and let them know that you're out there and you support public cyberschools in Colorado!

Our friends in Ohio

Two years ago in Colorado we faced a challenge to our choice in public education when our funding was threatened by the state legislature. Our friends in Ohio are currently facing the same threat; Ohio Governor Ted Strickland is proposing to cut the funding for public online charter schools by up to 75 percent.

For those of you who have family or friends who live in Ohio and believe in the power and potential of public online learning, we would encourage you to ask them to check out the Ohio Coalition of eSchool Families' Web site to learn more about how they can get involved to protect this choice in public education. To visit the site please click here: www.ohioeschoolfamilies.org

We've posted some recent articles on the situation in Ohio in our News section on the CCCF site, check out the articles for more information.

Video Contest

Thank you to those families who sent in entries for our Colorado Coalition of Cyberschool Families CollegeInvest Video Contest! We are currently in the process of judging the entries and will announce winners in mid-March in a special email alert. Stay tuned!

Facebook

Just a reminder that you can find CCCF on Facebook. We've seen steady growth and a lot of activity on our Colorado Coalition of Cyberschool Families group on Facebook. To join the group, search for "Colorado Coalition of Cyberschool Families" in the Groups section of Facebook.

Reminders

Last but not least, we encourage you to spread the word, get involved and stay engaged with CCCF!  Ways you can help:

• Tell other parents about the Coalition and encourage them to join.
• Volunteer to testify during the legislative session.
• Attend OLAB meetings.
• Tell us about some of the great things you are doing - send us your pictures and stories to share with legislators and the media and post on our website. Send us an email at families@coloradocyberfamilies.org.

<< back