By PAA Founding Member Sue Peters: For the past nine years, I have been deeply involved in Seattle’s public schools, as a parent of two, a school volunteer, an education blogger, a member of district task forces and as a local and national public education advocate. I would like to help steer the largest school district in Washington State in a positive direction. I believe that I can serve the Seattle school community even better as a representative on the … →
The parent trigger is a hot issue in many states now. It started in California, launched by the organization Parent Revolution, a fake-grassroots operation founded by charter-school mogul Steve Barr and funded by the likes of Gates, Walton et al. Here’s a summary of the current parent trigger landscape in California and a brief history of the previous parent triggers, put together from California sources who have followed the issue. Parent Revolution currently has two or three parent triggers going … →
Submitted by Steven Norton, head of Michigan Parents for Schools, 05/07/2013 We released this open letter on the occasion of US Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s visit to southeast Michigan. Sec. Duncan visited two schools in Detroit, one of them an EAA school, and the Perry Child Development Center in Ypsilanti. Our letter points out the conflict between the educational values Sec. Duncan has espoused, and which are the foundation of Perry’s High/Scope model, and the urgent direction of education policy … →
A Blog Post by Wendy Lecker, Sarah Darer Littman and Jonathan Pelto, members of PAA-Connecticut. Ask any parent, high school student or teacher- 11th grade is hell. Aside from the heavy course-load, juniors have to suffer through a litany of standardized tests- and these ones count: SATs, SAT subject tests, ACTs, APs. Could anyone make junior year any worse? Why yes! Thank President Obama, Secretary Duncan, and Governor Malloy, Commissioner Pryor, the State Board of Education and Connecticut’s esteemed legislators. … →
Lorie Barzano reports on an incident at the Texas House of Representatives: Ready for a good laugh folks? We don’t often get chances to laugh like this in our struggle…So yesterday I headed to the Capitol to testify against a “Trigger” bill in a House hearing. The bill is sponsored in the TX House by Representative Naomi Gonzalez. During my testimony, I made several good points about sham of trigger laws and the well-funded corporate-backed groups (like Parent Revolution) pushing … →
April 30, 2013 TX House Public Education Committee Hearing Public Testimony of Lorie Barzano Good afternoon/Evening, Committee members, guests. My name is Lorie Barzano, a public school parent, taxpayer and Chair of the Coalition to Strengthen Austin Urban Schools (SAUS), a local affiliate of Parents Across America. We are a parent led group committed to quality, accessible Public Education for all children. As parents, we actively work to support our neighborhood schools and make a concerted effort to educate ourselves … →
This blog was written last night by PAA founding member Rita Solnet. Today’s news was huge – Rita, PAA and other parents and parent groups in Florida have defeated the parent trigger there. More on that later, But meanwhile, some valuable insight from Rita: Watching the Florida Senate debate the so-called Parent Empowerment bill, is like watching an episode of Truth or Dare. The bill’s sponsor, Senator Kelli Stargel (R)- Lakeland, clumsily danced around answers to pertinent questions, like, … →
Rita Solnet, PAA founding member and leader of PAA Florida affiliate Testing is not Teaching, reports that she and others have helped expose Parent Revolution’s carpetbagging. PR (an apt acronym) is a California group funded by Gates, Walton and the usual gang to promote charter schools and the parent trigger. No Florida parent group has come out in favor of the parent trigger, but Parent Revolution’s astroturfers have staged a full-court press in the state legislature, where the bill passed … →
Our Seattle PAA founding member, Dora Taylor, has a chapter in new book, “Left Behind in the Race to the Top: Realities of School Reform,” edited by Julie Gorlewski, State University of New York-New Paltz and Brad Porfilio, Lewis University. Dora’s chapter is called “High Stakes Testing: A Parent’s Perspective.” From the publicity flyer: Public education is suffering attacks that are well funded and extraordinarily complex and multifaceted. These conditions make it difficult for educators and citizens to gather the … →
Parent Voices Weekly Education Fax April 24, 2013 Parents oppose “parent trigger” laws The story: Support for parent trigger laws isn’t parent-based or local. The Florida legislature is currently debating a controversial “parent trigger” law which could hand public schools over to a private management company if 51% of a school’s parents sign a petition requesting that change. Parent trigger laws are being pushed across the nation by astroturf groups like Parent Revolution and Students First, and wealthy foundations such … →
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