By Julie Woestehoff What are mass school closings? Mass school closings occur when school districts decide to close large numbers of public schools in a community within a single year, citing a variety of reasons like “underutilization” or academic failure. These closures go far beyond the periodic need to close
Category: Position Papers
Why Public School Parents Oppose H.R. 2218and Our Recommendations for Improving the Charter School Bill A Parents Across America Position Paper on the“Empowering Parents Through Quality Charter Schools Act” July 5, 2011 Parents Across America (PAA), a grassroots organization representing public school parents from across the United States, opposes the
The Empowerment Parents Want: A Real, Effective Voice in our Children’s Education As corporate efforts to privatize and capitalize on public education are increasingly being exposed as ineffective and damaging, the wealthy sponsors of these controversial strategies – e.g. school closings, turnarounds, charter school expansion – have been attempting to
Why PAA opposes California’s Parent Trigger law: It represents neither real parent choice nor empowerment California’s Parent Empowerment Act passed in early 2010 and has been supported by backers of corporate education reform nationwide. It is now being used as a model for legislation in other states, including New Jersey,
What Public School Parents Want in a New Federal Education Law A Parents Across America Position Paper on the Reauthorization of the Federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) – No Child Left Behind April, 2011 Introduction “What the best and wisest parent wants for his own child,
By Pamela Grundy September 2, 2011 American students are spending growing amounts of time preparing for and taking high-stakes standardized tests. The federal government requires students to take annual state tests in math, English, science and social studies. Some states and districts have gone even further, requiring standardized tests for
The United States cannot continue to ignore its widening income gap and increasing poverty rates if it truly wants to generate a healthy and socially productive future for its children. A recent analysis of U.S. census data revealed that the income gap between the richest and poorest Americans is the