This week, Kathleen Oropeza and Linda Kobert visited Bradenton to attend a meeting of parent representatives from local schools. Their group, headed by Christine Sket, has decided to join forces with FundEducationNow.org.
About 40 parents in the Manatee school district formally merged with the group during the district’s Joint Parent Organization quarterly meeting on Tuesday.
“We’re trying to become uniform and get the state to listen — to speak as one voice now rather as individual counties,” said Christine Sket, who heads the Manatee group.
The Bradenton parents are concerned about the lack of funding from Tallahassee and want lawmakers to know that they are “fed up”.
Manatee School Board Chairman Walter Miller attended the meeting this week with others, including Sket and Oropeza, and said he welcomes the alliance and its local supporters.
“It gets parents involved. These are their children,” Miller said. “It’s going to be a tremendous challenge for legislators to adequately fund education in this economy but it is still their responsibility. They need to find new sources of revenue.”
