Bring Back Citizenship Class Fully Funded as is now in Florida for the next School Year 2019/2020.

The Florida Legislature has decided to CUT the funding for Citizenship Education as a stand-alone class as it is now, which is targeted to help Immigrants on how to properly prepare and apply for Naturalization, including but not limited to the Interview and Exam to properly earn U. S. Citizenship. We have had separate classes up to the end of this school year with a majority of the students successfully passing and of those ready to apply, have applied and then become U.S. Citizens. We now have one term or semester for this valuable work. The Florida legislature is taking away the separate class and saying to teach one unit of this in the ESOL curriculum, which usually is not nearly enough time (usually one week), with most students having family and work, etc. to be successful and be adequately prepared for the naturalization interview and exam. The Solution is to Restore funding to the present level keeping Citizenship class at par/equal funding with just one level of ESOL or one class of College and Career Readiness which we presently offer here and many places around the State of Florida. If this happens and funding is restored, we can continue to offer a dedicated Citizenship class and properly prepare people for United States Citizenship. I believe that most administrators who have seen the great success from this program, teachers, and students involved in this very important work would also agree to have the funding restored in the next Florida LEGISLATIVE Session starting March 5 through May 3, 2019 (60 days) Urgent support is needed asap Thank you.