President Rector sent the following letter to Senatorial and Gubernatorial candidates. They have until this Friday to respond and their responses (or lack thereof) will be sent out via our eUpdate, announced on the Working Family TV show and mailed out to our members and their families.

Dear Candidate,

Buenas Yan Hafa Adai!!! GFT, Guam’s Local Union, has been actively supporting high quality Public Education and Public Services and the workers that provide them since 1965. We always like to inform our members and their families of where our candidates stand on important issues. For years, candidates have run on a pro education platform but every year they have funded Guam’s Department of Education well below the national average. This election we would like to ask only one question and we request a Yes or No answer. If we do not receive an answer from you before noon on October 15th, 2010 then we will assume that your answer is No.

Do you promise not to vote for any budget bill that does not fully fund Guam’s Department of Education to the same per pupil level as the most current National average of per pupil expenditures as documented by the National Center for Education Statistics? (http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d09/tables/dt09_185.asp)

For example: The National average in SY 2006-07 was $10,041 per pupil. If we multiplied that by the 33,000 public school students educated by Guam’s DOE their Budget should be at least $331,353,000 as opposed to the $174,658,357 that the legislature appropriated for Guam’s children for SY 2010-2011.

Thank you for your response and having the courage and fortitude to run for public office in our great democracy.

Together We Win

Matt Rector