Sending the advocacy letter

I sent the advocacy letter I talked about earlier. It was incredibly easy to do. I just went to the ACA's website's Public Policy section. They had several options for action, and I picked the Save School Counselor's Jobs option. They had a blank section, where you could pick between several pre-written options that you wanted to insert. In fact you could insert them all if you wanted. I chose the ones I felt best, customized it by including my own thoughts, and sent it on. The only problem I had with it was I saved it wrong. I had to go and re-do it so I could save it to upload to Blackboard. I was actually really surprised they let me do it again, usually if you had already sent one letter they remember. At least they do at other advocacy sites.

The thing I learned doing this is that this is a nationwide problem. Living in NJ, with all the education cuts Governor Christie has put into place, I just assumed it was a more local issue. Its scary to think that other states are doing the same thing. I think its very important that counselors nationwide band together and advocate about this. School counseling should be a recession proof occupation. We always need mental health providers. Its stunning to think that anyone would feel cutting school counselors is an appropriate decision.

The advocacy letter is such an easy and effective way to get word out locally, and to D.C., that this is unacceptable. I think its great that the ACA has made it so accessible.