[StBernard] One Step Closer

[Westley Annis]

This week, Louisiana began an historic process to make real and lasting
change to improve our schools for our kids. Bold reform proposals that will
ensure every child gets a great education and reward teachers are already
winning approval in the Legislature. 

When it comes to giving our kids more opportunities to receive a great
education, we have a moral imperative to take action.  Regardless of a
child's economic status, zip code, race, or gender, no child should be
denied the chance at a great education that will prepare him or her for
success in life.  Unfortunately, that's not happening today, but thanks to
the House and Senate education committees' actions this week, we are one
step closer to righting this wrong.

The committees also took important steps that not only make sure Louisiana's
children have effective teachers in their classroom, but also allow teachers
to be rewarded for their excellent work. We all know that it's critical to
have high quality teachers in our classrooms those teachers should be
celebrated and compensated for helping students succeed. 

The bottom line is that after this past week, children across Louisiana are
one step closer to having an equal opportunity to get a great education, but
our work is not yet done. We still have several steps to make sure these
bold education reforms become law and that's why we need your support.
Please sign the petition
<http://cl.publicaster.com/ClickThru.aspx?pubids=393%7c9934%7c9390%7c791501&
digest=ON5zJ7OonZqWlaxjLqVlQg&sysid=1>  to demand an equal opportunity to a
great education for our kids and forward this email to your friends.

Finally, this week we also traveled to Alexandria to announce that
Sutherland will create 600 new jobs at a Business Process Outsourcing
operations center. Sutherland will invest nearly $3 million for the project
and the 600 new jobs will result in the creation of more than 400 indirect
jobs in Central Louisiana. 

-Bobby