US Education Secretary Betsy DeVos was recently in Salt Lake City speaking at a $3000 per person event. Here’s a highlight of her speech, which clearly indicates DeVos’s limited understanding of the value and role of public education: “The simple fact is that if a school is not meeting a child’s unique needs, then that school is failing that child. Think of it like your cell phone. AT&T, Verizon or T-Mobile may all have great networks, but if you can’t … →

For some time now, PAA has been raising red flags about the rapidly expanding use of education technology (EdTech) in our schools. Last summer we published a series of fact sheets and a 35-page documentation paper detailing some of the many concerns we have about EdTech. Since then, we have urged parents to ask questions at your local schools and supported legislative and other efforts to require more transparency and accountability from EdTech programs and businesses. PAA’s concerns are multi-faceted. … →

We are so pleased that a committee of the Maryland state legislature is considering a bill to establish health and safety guidelines for the use of digital devices in schools. This is a great model for other states. We suggest that you contact your state legislators (and you could also try local city officials) asking them to introduce a similar bill. Here’s a sample email: Dear (legislator) We would like to request that you consider sponsoring a bill in this … →

We included the following message in today’s fax message to Congress. A pdf version of this information is here: voucherstudies3-17: Parents Across America (PAA) is very concerned that, in his speech to Congress last night, President Trump renewed his call to spend millions of federal education dollars on school vouchers. His Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos, is also a strong voucher proponent. PAA opposes voucher programs because they redirect scarce money away from our public school system, may cross constitutional lines … →

PAA traditionally sends a letter to every new Congress to introduce ourselves and share our vision for public education. We’re finally getting around to it this year, a bit late but certainly in time to address the debacle of the Trump-DeVos “parent town hall” a week ago, to which only one public school parent was invited, and the President’s promo of vouchers in his speech to Congress a couple of days ago. Here’s the letter we just faxed to nearly … →

Parents Across America supports Maryland HB866  and SB1089 National parent group has prepared extensive materials about the harmful effects on children’s academic, intellectual, emotional, physical and social development when digital devices are misused and overused February 21, 2017 The national parent group, Parents Across America (PAA), strongly endorses legislative proposals being considered by the Maryland House Ways and Means Committee that would provide some guidelines for the safe use of digital devices in the classroom. In August, 2016, PAA released … →

Tomorrow, the Maryland House Ways and Means Committee will consider a cutting-edge proposal to protect schoolchildren from the effects of too much screen time. From the committee’s press release today: The House Ways and Means Committee of the Maryland General Assembly will hear legislation on Friday, February 24th at 1:00 that directs the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH) to craft safety guidelines for the use of digital devices in Maryland public schools. Delegate Steven Arentz (R-District 36) … →

PAA sent the following letter to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to welcome her to the position and to raise some concerns about her intentions, especially in light of the parent town hall meeting she and President Trump held past week. Of the 7 parents who were invited, three were home schoolers, three were charter and private school parents and two were home schoolers. We suggested that they really should call PAA so that they can hear from a somewhat more … →

We apologize for our web site being down for a couple of weeks recently. We’ll try to catch up with a few pieces we wanted to share during that time, notably a series of blog posts by PAA President Dora Taylor who exposes the seamy side of the “personalized learning” and social emotional learning (SEL) trends. We’ll share the opening paragraphs and provide a link to Dora’s Seattle Education blog for the rest. Part 1 The endgame of corporate reform … →

PAA sent the following to every US Senator today: Please vote “No” on DeVos nomination We respectfully ask you to vote “no” on the appointment of Betsy DeVos for US Secretary of Education. We communicated our detailed reasons to all Senators by fax last week, and appreciate the fact that so many are considering a “no” vote on this most controversial candidate. Our main concerns are that: Mrs. DeVos’s opposition to charter school accountability calls into serious question her commitment … →