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.

I have a grandson and an adopted granddaughter. My granddaughter is having a total meltdown (she is 9) because she can't grasp the concept of the math and gets upset if she can not do well. This is putting to much pressure on the children and the parents. Sometimes in order to help my grandson with his homework, my daughter has to go online and learn how to do it. Life is becoming too stressful as it is without putting all this added pressure on our children.

Research confirms the relationship between school start times, sleep deprivation and student performance, as well as depression and mod swings. Mounting evidence about the biology of Adolescent Sleep, and the impact of later start times has shown that starting early not only undermines students' academic achievements but risks their health and safety. Data from later starting schools demonstrates improvements in tardiness, absenteeism and performance.

Since 1982, the Governor's School for the Sciences has been the premier science program for thousands of Pennsylvania's brightest high school students. As a '15 alumni of the program, I know firsthand that the learning, social, and experiential bonds PGSS cultivates are truly special. By discontinuing funding for PGSS, Governor Wolf, you will sincerely be doing a great disservice to thousands of Pennsylvania's next innovators, discoverers, and scholars for years to come.

Privatizing is a union-busting, job destroying. and service destroying CUTBACK. We need to support our AFSCME brothers and sisters and stop privatization at RCC in the bud.

I was abused by my Kindergarten teacher and the gym teacher in my freshman year of highschool.

We need a better mechanism for authentic public participation in the governance of the state-controlled School District of Philadelphia. Don't you agree? City Council is uniquely positioned to directly engage the School Reform Commission and administration of the School District of Philadelphia. It can solicit information and expect a response. Therefore it is uniquely positioned to provide a mechanism to create meaningful and robust public participation.

I am starting this position because the people of Detroit are being robbed of their constitutional rights as the state takes them over.