Rahm Emanuel, the new Mayor of Chicago, walks out of an NBC  interview when asked when asked what school he intends to enroll  his children in. He intones: “My children are not an instrument of me being mayor.” But everyone else’s children are. Check out the video here and below. If the report in the Washington Post’s Answer Sheet is correct, he has chosen the Lab School, where Obama sent his own kids, where Duncan went to school himself, and … →

This perceptive piece is reprinted with permission from the American Enterprise blog.  Members of Parents Across America agree that Duncan’s policies are arbitrary, overreach his authority, and conflict with public opinion about how our schools should be improved. By Whitney Downs In yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, education writer Stephanie Banchero highlighted the increasing impatience among state leaders over Congress’s inability to “fix” No Child Left Behind. Reauthorization of the law, which was enacted during the George W. Bush administration and … →

By Pamela Grundy The first clue came when the phone rang at the house of my friend Carol Sawyer. At the other end was a pleasant woman who said she was conducting a survey on education in our school district, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. Carol doesn’t much care for phone surveys, but she’s interested in anything that has to do with CMS. She said yes. A few minutes in, she realized that this was no ordinary survey. Question after question sought her … →

by Julia Sass Rubin of Save our Schools NJ, an affiliate of Parents Across America; cross-posted at the Big Think. In a recent big think profile, New Jersey’s Acting Commissioner of Education Christopher Cerf observed that consensus “is not the highest value in this world” and that “putting too high a premium on consensus and collaboration” could lead to bad solutions. This may be true when it comes to corporations.  But Mr. Cerf wasn’t discussing corporate restructuring; he was talking … →

By Susan Barrett I appreciate that Oregon’s Stand for Children (SFC) chapter has responded to my post, but unfortunately this only further confirms for me that they have no interest in changing their agenda. In the past few days, I have been contacted by other parents who agree with me that Stand is not representing their concerns. For example, not once have I heard a parent say, “Gee, if only we had more Teach for America teachers, things would be … →

UPDATE: We just received a transcript of the whole session here. Recently we posted  the observations of Susan Barrett, a disaffected parent member of Stand for Children, which started as a grassroots organization in Oregon that has now gone nationwide; and, as Susan argued, changed its goals, governance and tactics along the way. Jonah Edelman,  its founder and the son of children’s advocate Marian Wright Edelman,  has raised millions of dollars in funds from the Gates and Walton Foundations, as … →

Parents Across America is co-sponsoring and participating in the SOS conference and workshops at American University,  the rally,  and march  to the White House from July 28-July 30 in DC.  We are also co-hosting a reception with the SOS march organizers the evening of July 29. Please join us!  See discounts for travel and hotel below. We are also going to be visiting Senate and House offices on July 28; if you’d like to join us, email info@parentsacrossamerica.org Registration: There … →