The Revive Progress Association is a new student group sponsoring a brunch this weekend to raise awareness about state education legislature.
The Schoolhouse Votes Initiative Brunch will take place at The Retreat at Lake Tamaha this Sunday at noon and will feature door prizes and a waffle bar. The goal of the initiative is to educate people in the community about a particular piece of legislature coming up for a vote Nov. 4.
The legislation will require two thirds of the school board members to approve an education fund increase of $50,000.
Revive Progress Association president Trevin Fluker said funding increases currently need votes from five out of eight school board members, but the new law will require six out of eight members to approve. He said this is an important issue because failing schools need proper funding in order to improve.
“This whole Schoolhouse Votes Initiative is to help people grasp something that they care about, something they feel they can exercise their opinions on that falls within the realm of political and educational issues,” she said. “Students on campus should be aware because it falls within the lines of something that they can lend a helping hand to.”
Samuel Kendrick, a marketing major and member of the Revive Progress Association said he hopes the Initiative will help raise awareness about the importance of voting.
“A lot of people say they don’t care, and I really genuinely feel that the reason they say they don’t care is they don’t know,” he said. “They don’t know the benefit that can come from it and the voice that they have in their community.”
The Revive Progress Association was founded this summer as a partnership between UA students and the principal of Central High School. Through mentoring and speaking with high school students, the group hopes to encourage students to value education.
“We want to instill a direction in the students at the school so they know that education is not just this uninteresting process,” Fluker said. “It’s something that can give you a better standard of living. We want to make that connection for them.”
Fluker said they chose to partner with Central High School because it is currently in the bottom 6 percent of test scores in the state. He hopes to get students interested in college and help the school get out of the “failing” designation.
“Speaking with the children at Central and really working to get them off that failing schools list [is important] because I feel there’s no reason why a school that close to the University where the goal of [reaching] the University should be in their minds, should be so far behind academically,” Kendrick said. “We want to get their minds wrapped around education and a brighter future.”
