This upcoming Monday, the North Carolina State Senate will vote on NC Senate Bill 279, which has the potential to seriously affect sexual education in our state. Previously, sexual education in public schools in North Carolina was limited to abstinence-only-until-marriage programs. The Healthy Youth Act of 2009 brought about comprehensive sexual education, requiring all school districts to design programs in accordance with North Carolina’s Standard Course of Study for Comprehensive Health Education. NC Senate Bill 279 would remove the guidelines established by the Healthy Youth Act and instead would only require that individuals responsible for developing sexual education curricula and teaching materials for local school districts have a background in one of the following areas: education, adolescent psychology, behavioral counseling, medicine, human anatomy, biology, ethics, or health education. Such a change poses a significant threat to sexual education in North Carolina, and some have suggested would allow the return of abstinence-only-until marriage curricula. Maintaining a comprehensive sexual education program in North Carolina is vital to the health of our youth. We have made significant strides in recent years in reducing teen pregnancy rates, which have fallen by almost 50% since 2000, and fell by 11% in 2013 alone. While we are on the right path, major disparities still exist, as pregnancy rates among Hispanic and African-American teenage females are almost double those in white teenagers. Participation from families, communities and religious organizations is vital in helping to achieve this goal, but we also must have comprehensive sexual education that is based on peer-reviewed, scientific evidence. By allowing individuals without any formal training in sexual education to dictate sexual education curricula, passage of NC Senate Bill 279 would represent a massive step in the wrong direction. That is why I want you to join me in asking our elected representatives to oppose NC Senate Bill 279 and thereby support the health of young people throughout the state of North Carolina.

If our children are going to achieve their dreams, they need great teachers. Unfortunately, here in Central Florida, our public school teachers are among the lowest-paid in the country. People don’t get into teaching for the pay, but we need to pay our teachers a wage that reflects the value of their work to our families. We want to attract top teaching talent, and encourage good teachers to stick with it. We owe it to Florida’s children, and the long-term health of our economy and our state depend on it! That’s why I'm introducing legislation to establish a minimum starting salary for Florida’s teachers of $50,000 per year. Our proposal is completely paid-for, and won't cause a dime of tax increases. Our children need qualified educators, and we can’t get there without paying our teachers a competitive wage. Add your name: call on Tallahassee to pass the Florida Teacher Fair Pay Act!

My daughter's high school is shuffling students to 'balance' class sizes, some of which are larger than 40 students. Teachers are digging into their own pockets to purchase critical supplies that are not forthcoming from their school districts. Administrative staffs have had to perform more tasks due to the under funding of their budgets. Teacher salaries have been declining. In the past fifteen years the number of graduates seeking to become a teacher has fallen from over 40,000 to less than 21,000 people. Let's reverse this ominous decline! No more talk...we need action. Now!

September is Adult Literacy Month. Adults are a child's first teacher. If an adult struggles with reading, children and families suffer. Let's work together to break this cycle! Literacy matters!!

The effort that these pathetic people put into this is very disappointing. At a rate of $175 a year; I could be paying bills. But thousands of parents are lured into this scam, as it is nothing more than a tragic mess.

The abrupt removal of Dr. Murry from her position as principal 4 weeks into the school year is unconscionable. Under her leadership, Liberty has thrived, met goals, and has maintained a standard of quality. The education of the student's is her priority, reinstate Dr. Murry and put Liberty back on course, NOW!

I am starting this petition because I, among many others, was unable to continue my education beyond high school even though I've attended North Carolina schools since I was 6 years old. As Undocumented Students we have to pay three times as much as an in state student even though we have lived here for many years. At this moment there are 20 states that currently have in state tuition for Undocumented Students. I urge you to sign this petition to show your support. I sincerely hope that we are given the chance to fulfill our dreams of becoming teachers, doctors, scientists, physiologists and many other things that we can accomplish with a higher education.

Children who are bullied do not want to use the multi-person facilities in a school (i.e. Restrooms, Locker Rooms) more often than not because that's where bullying often happens. In any area where the attackers can isolate from public view their acts on the one being attacked, they can bully with freedom. This isn't just true for the transgender child; it's for any child seen as different by someone else and harassment begins. {Single Person Restrooms} is so easy a problem! Too easy a problem not to resolve right now, TODAY! A child in elementary school shouldn't be expected to stand up to attackers, because by law we've forced them to be there. No child of any age should be expected to defend themselves, because by law we forced them to be there. Can we at least agree on that? Regardless of your moral opinion about transgender adults, ALL CHILDREN HAVE TO BE PROTECTED if we wish to call ourselves a loving society. This shouldn't have to stand up to debate. It simply needs to be done. Erica Elizabeth Ravenwood - for The TransgenderMovement.com http://www.thetransgendermovement.com/

Penn State University freshmen this year will be required to read Russell Gold’s pro-fracking book, "The Boom: How Fracking Ignited the American Energy Revolution and Changed the World", as part of the school’s Penn State Reads program. They’ll even be able to win cash prizes for the essays they write on what they’ve learned! Then, in mid-October, Mr. Gold will spend a few days on campus to speak with students and lecture. Penn State University is nothing if not loyal to the fracking industry! Please sign and share our petition calling on Penn State to do a whole lot better by their students by scrapping "The Boom" from its reading program and breaking ties with the fossil fuels industry for good!

Despite this issue being around for years, the State Department of Education has no realistic plan for heat abatement in all schools, and the Legislature only funded $3 million dollars to address the problem in this year's budget.

My daughter is an attendee of Community School of Creative Education in Oakland, California and witnesses the prostitution and johns on a daily basis. A child should be able to attend school in a clean, calm, positive and safe environment with surroundings of serenity. Seeing prostitutes dressed provocatively stationed at every street corner within a 1-mile radius every day manipulates our small children and older children growing into their adolescence is unacceptable. Witnessing such negativity on an everyday basis will lead our children to believe that prostitution is acceptable and something that is okay to partake in.

Adult education is just as important as educating K-12th grades. It all starts with the parents. Why not see that the parents are getting what they need to help their children? Why don't we recognize the importance of supporting adults as they work to help their children reach their educational goals?