Secure Rural Schools and Community Self Determination Act (SRS/Forest Counties) Coalition

2017 #SaveSRS Social Media Campaign

As a complement to our ongoing email and phone outreach and in-person meetings, the coalition will be turning up the heat to ‘#SaveSRS’ on social media next week. On Tuesday, May 2, all coalition members are encouraged to log onto twitter (and/or Facebook) with our pre-drafted sample tweets. They use facts and talking points pulled from our various letters and calls to action. They are all designed to fit under twitter’s 140-character limit.

The tweets are listed here:

  • Congress must address critical services of rural communities and fund Secure Rural Schools #SaveSRS
  • FY17 CR must #SaveSRS FY 16 and 17 funding and extend program thru FY18 to ensure certainty for communities.
  • Secure Rural Schools is critical program for forest communities in 41 states. #SaveSRS
  • As of 3/7, Congressional inaction means Secure Rural School Communities receive funding based on 1908 formula. #Save SRS
  • Congressional inaction means 775 counties serving 4400 schools and 9 million students in 41 states face draconian budget cuts. #SaveSRS
  • No Secure Rural Schools means loss of county road, fire+safety services, and reductions in edu programs and services for students. #SaveSRS
  • Congress must honor commitment to the 775 rural counties + 4,400 schools in rural communities and districts served by SRS program. #SaveSRS
  • No #SaveSRS? Forest counties + schools face loss of essential fire, police, road and bridge, community and educational services.
  • Rural communities call on Congress to honor commitment and #SaveSRS
  • Education cuts don’t heal, and Congress must #SaveSRS to avoid teacher layoffs, increased class size, and reduced program offerings.

Engaging in a social media ‘twitter storm’ or ‘thunder clap’ is pretty simple. We pick a day (and sometimes, a specific time) and we commit to sending these tweets. We are picking a day (May 2) and encourage you to send the tweets through out the day. Cut and paste the tweet, and send it to the interwebs!

We have also included a comprehensive list of all Congressional twitter handles, for both the House and Senate. Please add the twitter handle of your members of Congress to get their attention.

  • Pro Tip: If you are starting your tweet with the twitter handle of your member of Congress, type a period first. If you don’t, it is a direct tweet visible only to the member of Congress, and we want broad visibility. As an example, Noelle (from AASA) tweets from @Noellerson. If we wanted to ‘tag’ her in a tweet but have if visible to everyone, we would type “.@NoellersonCongress must address critical services of rural communities and fund Secure Rural Schools #SaveSRS.” You don’t need to highlight the period; we did it here for emphasis.

You can send your tweets all at once, or throughout the day, or schedule them ahead of time to pop up throughout the day. The tweets included here are just a sample; feel free to add your own tweets specific to the impacts in your state and district, and make sure to include #SaveSRS.

Direct any questions to Noelle Ellerson Ng ().