College should be affordable for people of all financial backgrounds to attend and leave with a degree. Expenses (tuition, housing, etc.) should be made cheaper, not free, so students and people can earn a college education.

Currently, high schools in Okaloosa County start at exactly 7 o' clock in the morning. These start times are harmful for our teens, in regards to their mental health, grades, and their safety. Furthermore, early school start times are linked to increased drug use, sleep deprivation, depression, and other health problems related to lack of sleep. Many organizations, such as Start School Later, say that starting high school classes later would reduce tardiness to the first two periods of classes, improve student's grades and test scores, decrease drug use, reduction in car crashes among teens, and improvement in student's attentiveness. A few years ago, in neighboring Santa Rosa County, the starting time for high schools was moved to 9:15am as part of a new three-tiered busing system to save money on busing students to school. After this change, school attendance and grades improved and there were fewer tardies in first period. Another school district which changed their start time from 7:45am to between 8:55am and 9:10am saw their graduation rate jump from around 82% up to 90%.We support the three-tiered system, as it's the most cost-effective way of busing students to school. To keep elementary school parents happy with current elementary start times and to provide middle and high school students more time to get the sleep they need, we propose that these changes be considered: One option is to move the entire district 30 minutes later, so that means that the high school would begin at 7:30am. But Florosa and Longwood elementary schools would start at 9:30am, and in Seattle parents complained about these late elementary start times, and wanted them to start earlier, like 8am. Also not all schools are at the 7:45am minimum start time we request for all schools. Another option is to move all middle schools to the third tier, with elementary schools now starting directly after the high school tier. Start times would be 7:55am for the high schools, 8:30-8:35am for the elementary schools, and 9:25am for middle schools. Baker School would be on the 2nd or third tier (due to large busing area and one bus run that runs for up to 100 minutes long), and Laurel Hill on 2nd tier. There are many counties (with both early and later high school start times) in Florida that have middle schools on the third tier, such as Pinellas County, Bay County, Escambia County, and Leon County, among others, with middle school starts as late at 9:30am. In general, we request that the School Board and Superintendent come up with a later start times plan that meets these guidelines: - No bus stops, regardless of elementary, middle, or high school bus before 7am. - No school should start before 7:45am, and preferably not before 8am. - Middle and high schools must start at 8:30am or later, as per the CDC and AAP recommendations. - No schools should start after 9:30am, so afternoon bus runs are not after sunset. - Use the bus optimization software purchased in 2014 to optimize and shorten bus runs to allow the bus window to be shortened, saving money. - Finally, please implement later start times in August 2017, because doing nothing is to do harm. Please make the change now to help our middle and high school students get the recommended amount of sleep each night.

The revolution cannot, must not, and will not be televised, because it begins in the mind and the heart.

Norte Vista High School is an important place in our community that honors the Native American and Hispanic culture of Riverside in its choice of name and mascot. Unfortunately, there are those that want to erase our connections to our Native American roots by changing the mascot; we cannot allow a prominent symbol of honor and history to be removed from our school, and we cannot allow the peoples that lived here before to be forgotten. We ask you, Dr. Salazar, to bravely ignore those who would erase our heritage, and to not change the mascot that we love, respect, and who helps us to live up to the mission of our school by embodying the realization of unlimited potential.

This statement also applies to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s corporate education reform policies. We at Teachers’ Letters to Bill Gates and the following signers hereby assume that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation experts are motivated by a sincere desire to improve education. But we fail to understand how your organization has become the national and global arbiter of the means and ends of education in the United States and around the world. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s narrow focus on standardized testing risks turning learning into drudgery and killing the joy of learning. As the Gates Foundation’s national and global push for the Common Core, high-stakes testing, and teacher evaluations based on test scores has led many governments into a national and international competition for higher test scores, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has assumed the power to shape education policy in the United States and around the world, with no debate about the necessity or limitations of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s goals. We are deeply concerned that measuring a great diversity of educational traditions and cultures using a single, narrow, biased yardstick could, in the end, do irreparable harm to our communities, our schools, our profession, and our students. You and the OECD have much in common, Bill and Melinda. Your imposition of corporate reform policies, which are measured using a single, narrow, biased yardstick, are successful in one area only: making a profit for you, test companies, publishers, and the privatizing corporate reformers. Your policies continue to use our children as guinea pigs in your corporate reform experiments and risk doing “irreparable harm to our schools and our students”. We the undersigned reject the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s tight control of education policy. Venture philanthropy’s influence on public education has been all-pervasive and we demand an immediate restoration of democracy in our schools. Divest from corporate education reform. (Note: We will deliver this letter with signatures along with a published copy of all Teachers’ Letters to Bill Gates at the #EducatingGatesRally in Seattle on June 26th. Readers, please send us a note to add your name as a signer. Join us at the rally! ) Sincerely, Susan DuFresne, General Education and Special Education Kindergarten Teacher, Co-Author of Teachers’ Letters to Bill Gates Katie Lapham, NYC public school teacher, Co-Author of Teachers’ Letters to Bill Gates Anthony Cody, NBCT, M.Ed, Retired Teacher of 24 years, Author and Education Blogger at Living in Dialogue Jennifer Rumsey, Parent, High School English Teacher Mark Naison, Professor of African American Studies and History, Fordham University and Co-Founder of the Badass Teachers Association Julianna K. Dauble, M. Ed. Teacher, Activist & Parent Linda Myrick, Teacher, Bellevue School District Kris Nielsen, Parent, Teacher, Activist Keitha Bryson 1st grade teacher – Highline Public Schools Michelle Murphy Ramey Elizabeth Lynch – Public School Teacher, Adjunct Professor, Grandparent, Activist Lance Fialkoff, Founder, Musical Media for Education (MME) Joan Kramer, Retired School Librarian Noel Hammatt Susan Polos, National Board Certified Teacher, Board Member Section of School Librarians, New York Libray Association Kathleen Canavan, M.Ed. Terry Preuss, NBCT, Career Public Educator, Broward Teachers Union Executive Board, Broward County Public Schools District Advisory Council, Concerned American Parent and Citizen Helmut G. Preuss, Concerned Parent, co-founder ABC+LOVE Tracy Eddins, Kindergarten Teacher, Parent and concerned human Cynthia Liu, Parent and Founder, K-12 News Network Rosalie Romano, Educator for a sustainable future with social justice for all Ani McHugh, Parent and English Teacher Lissa L. Coleman, Certified School Dropout Prevention Specialist Leonie Haimson, Class Size Matters Judie Haynes, ESL author, educator and professional development provider Thomas Garrard, Teacher Librarian Amy Walls, Teacher and Parent T. Daniel Brown, Parent, 4th grade Teacher, Grand Ledge, Michigan Susan M. Goncarovs, Art Teacher K-12 and ^0^ Sheri Kittay, Parent and Teacher Karen Glennon Retired Teacher with Bachelor’s degree, Master’s degree, Master Teacher, author, and parent Krisha M. Allgood, Badass student and Teacher-to-be Ms. Robin Lunt, Parent Sabrina Joy Stevens, former teacher, current public school guardian & Executive Director, Integrity in Education Maria Schrenger, Parent and 1st grade Teacher Marie Corfield, BFA, MAT, Elementary Art Educator, Concerned Parent, Vice President Flemington-Raritan Education Association, Vice President Hunterdon County Education Association http://mcorfield.blogspot.com/ Lesa Aloan Wilbert, M. Ed. Karen Adlum, Trained Professional Teacher, Early Childhood Development/Elementary Education and concerned citizen for our future democracy Robert D. Skeels, public education advocate Becca Ritchie, Veteran Middle School Educator, Education Activist and concerned citizen Mary Reed, 1st grade Teacher Linda Liddell-English teacher Ann Marie Finnen, Music Teacher and Parent Sherm Koons, Teacher, human, Washington County Career Center, Marietta Ohiohttp://hypnohio.blogspot.com/ Jeanne Berrong, California Public Educator Tina Andres, California Teacher and parent Michael Struchen, proud public school English Teacher Jannike Johnsen, M.Ed, Special Education Teacher, parent, and concerned citizen Stewart Bloom, Retired Elementary/Reading Recovery Teacher, Fort Wayne, Indiana.http://bloom-at.blogspot.com Kathleen Jeskey, Teacher, Parent, Grandparent; Oregon Save Our Schools, Oregon BATs Gerardo Barboza, M.Ed. Education Policy Research englishincostarica.org Helen Sadler, Educator Nancy Bailey, Ph.D. former Special Education Teacher and Principal, public education advocate, author and blogger Nancy Bailey’s Education Website athttp://nancye...

We want healthy and safe school hours for ALL Greenwich students. When teens get the required 8.5 to 9 hours of sleep: • School attendance goes up • Tardiness decreases • They sleep less in class • They have fewer car accidents • They visit nurses and counselors less often • They report less depression and irritability • They suffer fewer concussions and sports injuries Starting school early, without a doubt, undermines optimal health and success.

The payment of dues in the 2014/2015 academic session was compulsory for all NUESAITES, the association led by Salami Oluwafemi, aka Anomalous has in no way or the other give back to the students in spite of large turn up, for the dues, we are suspecting an act of embezzlement, we hereby demand for the investigation of his regime, before we are forced to pay another which might follow the same trend. #SayingNoToCorruption

Due to lack of planning and ineffective negotiation by New York City's Department of Education (DOE) we have lost our 5th Grade's classrooms at the Whitehall Annex! Our Bronx elementary school, PS 24, is already filled beyond its legal capacity, yet the DOE is attempting to make up for its planning debacle by bringing the 5th grade back into the main building. Our student population has increased by 36.3% over the past seven years, from 769 students in 2008 to 1048 students in 2015. The PS 24 main building is built to accommodate 610 students. This is a major safety issue. The current overcrowding is detrimental to our children and shows little consideration for the teachers in our school. Overcrowding and lack of planning has already caused the loss of the school library and classrooms specialized for music, science and Spanish. We could lose the art room next year. Indoor recess space is extremely limited. There is simply no room for additional classrooms in the main building. We petition the NYC DOE to seek space equivalent to the Annex to lease as soon as possible and to not attempt to build additional classrooms within the already overcrowded space of the PS 24 main building.

New York once led the U.S. in providing an affordable, high quality public college or university education. I benefited greatly and am one of hundreds of thousands of CUNY and SUNY alumni who believe that a college degree should not put you in debt for decades.  I'm urging all New Yorkers, but especially my fellow alumni, if CUNY and SUNY were there for you, think about the students who come after you. They are your neighbors, your children, and grandchildren. Public investment in higher education is a sound investment for the state and for our communities.

Global Leadership Academy International Charter High School(GLAICHS) will be a premier college preparatory school which will focus on international studies and leadership development, specializing in international travel, entrepreneurship and community service.

Giving the disabled a voice: No one listens if you don't have a degree, so I want mine.

I am curious what others think of eliminating cursive writing skills from teaching standards. I think that cursive writing is an important part of education. It is an advanced form of communication. It is conducive to thinking compared to printing block letters, for example thinking in words and not in letters. It has not been encouraged, maybe because the teachers were looking for legibility or neatness.