College tuition continues to skyrocket, causing students to graduate with increasingly higher levels of debt. At the same time, graduates from Michigan's universities are often deciding to leave Michigan to find jobs elsewhere. As a result, the state of Michigan has a serious talent crisis - there are thousands of jobs in Michigan that need to be filled but there are simply not enough graduates with the right degrees living here to fill them. We can fix this problem by making student debt more manageable so that Michigan graduates can afford to stay and work here.

A good part of an entire generation of students may turn off to all mathematically involved careers.

As a committed public school parent and taxpayer, I am concerned that online charters are stealing taxpayer dollars.

The students of Clairfield Elementary currently DO NOT HAVE access to the same information and are limited in their opportunities for engagement as a result of not having fiber optic access to internet services. Why should they be left out? Why do they not have access? The students deserve to have better. They should have the same opportunities for learning that other students currently have in the state of Tennessee .

Iowa children are the future of our workforce, and will be the drivers of Iowa’s economy for years to come. A commitment to education should be an easy way to attract and retain families in our great state. Iowa ranks 35th in the nation in per pupil funding and is already more than $1,600 below the national average in annual per-pupil investment. I don't want to see cuts to world languages, social studies, the arts, or after-school activities because of underfunding our schools. Instead, I want to see our students able to compete for 21st century jobs.

Pennsylvania's public education system has been declining for most of the past 30 years due to many of the problems afflicting public education throughout the United States. Too many students' academic performance declines until they either fail to graduate high school, or graduate unprepared for further education or a career. Pennsylvania's funding formula for public education during this same 30 years has reduced the state share and increased the local share to the point where the inequities between districts with high tax bases and those with low tax bases are egregious, and render it nearly impossible for low-income school districts to close the achievement gap with better-off districts. While Governor Wolf has made education funding a priority, it is important to spell out some specifics without which merely increasing overall funding may not be sufficient to address the breadth of the problems we face.

These proposed budget cuts will affect my grandchildren's educations and must be stopped.

My son tested at genius levels in kindergarten in a non-common core state where he lived with his father. After moving to Arkansas to a common core state, he is struggling to just stay right below average. The homework for 2nd grade is several hours every night and my step daughter who is in the fourth grade has 3 to 4 hours of homework each night that I can not help with. The kids are so stressed and overwhelmed by this new way of learning. Most I know have started having self esteem issues. The teachers also don't agree with it. It just needs to stop.

In 2011, the U.S. Department of Justice sued Education Management Corporation (EDMC), who operate the chain of Art Institutes, for $11 BILLION! So what about the parents and the 151,000+ students who attended during the years 2003 to 2011, who were innocent of the crimes committed? Would paying back the student loans make them accessories to the fraud? Making these parents and students pay monies that were intended for education, but were used for salaries and bonuses for executives in the company, is NOT in line with our Constitution. Consider THIS: Then-President (and now CEO) Edward West received $1,551,802 in compensation for 2009, $5,486,905 in compensation for 2010, and $6,355,982 in compensation for 2011. Then-CEO (and now Chairman) Todd Nelson received $1,812,996 in compensation for 2009, $3,804,121 in compensation for 2010, and $13 million in compensation for 2011. The year 2006 saw the takeover of EDMC by Goldman Sachs and its private equity partners. Source: Huffington Post article below. I enrolled at Ai Pittsburgh in 2009 and graduated with an Associate's in graphic design in 2010. I, like many others, had been lured in by their claims of high employment ratings and being the first, therefore the best, school for graphic design. This is far from the truth as many of the courses had nothing to do with graphic design and failed to provide the tools needed for the professional field; such as web design. I endured the same situation as Matt Bors in the Huffington Post article saying, "that many of the students in his classes had no talents to speak of, and it was clear that they would not be able to get jobs as artists or designers." This created an atmosphere not of creativity, but of confusion, discouragement, discontent, and low spirits. As they say, "If I only knew then, what I know now", I never would have signed my parents or myself up for a $50,000 debt for a lack of education only to find out that my enrollment directly contributed to the fraud. $11 BILLION seems quite unfathomable to students and parents now burdened by sums that are miniscule in comparison. I have not paid a cent to contribute to this company's fraudulent action, and I refuse to pay a cent, or let disciplinary action to be taken upon myself or my parents. The loan company is threatening wage garnishment. How is this possible when they are accomplices to a HUGE fraud scandal? This scandal has been recognized in the Supreme Court, who then took action against EDMC. Loan agency Sallie Mae, now Navient, was hand-in-hand with EDMC, handing out loans to anyone who asked. So what happened to the $11 BILLION? While a civil court case could prove punitive damages to the ones affected, the least I am asking is for the debt to be lifted for all those in attendance at the Art Institutes from 2003 to 2011. View these articles on the EDMC money scandal, read the comments people have made on these articles, sign the petition, and help out those who have been conned into this scheme. http://www.pdnonline.com/news/The-Art-Institutes--3531.shtml http://www.huffingtonpost.com/davidhalperin/edmc-professors-and-stude_b_1909449.html http://petapixel.com/2011/09/02/us-gov-sues-the-art-institutes-for-11-billion-fraud/ http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/09/education/09forprofit.html?_r=0 http://www.studentsreview.com/specific_detail.php3?uid=3147 Quote from Huffington Post article: "Senator Tom Harkin's Health Education Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee calculates that 77.4 percent of EDMC's 2010 revenue came from U.S. Department of Education student financial aid." In 2012, an online petition was started by Vaughn Reynolds at Change.org. He sought to unite Art Institutes students at various campuses in opposition of the teacher layoffs, to educate students and the public about the impact of Wall Street ownership of colleges. The petition has more than 2800 supporters so far. A related Facebook group has over 1800 members. Find the Facebook link here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/aistudents/?ref=ts

Our kids' education should be our community's top priority. Mountains of academic research show that class size has long-term impacts on student achievement and success, particularly in the early grades and among disadvantaged children. This academic year, some classes at Riverton and Reiche elementary schools suffered large class sizes (25 to 27 students). Superintendent Emmanuel Caulk has proposed a modest 1.2% increase in the school budget for next year--enough to ensure appropriate class sizes. The proposed increase is below the federal government's 2015 inflation rate (1.7%) and is just a fraction of the 4-5% increases in school budgets proposed in neighboring districts, such as Falmouth and Yarmouth. Despite this, there are some that are calling for cutting our school budgets. If further cuts are made to the proposed budget, more children in the city will face very large class sizes. Please support Portland schools and smaller class sizes by voting to increase the school budget by at least 1.2% for next fiscal year.

Our state's priorities must be re-aligned. Ex-Governor Parnell's oil-tax giveaway is devastating our schools and teachers. This must be reconciled!

We respectfully request that our Issaquah School District (ISD) Board and Superintendent follow the recommendation of the American Academy of Pediatrics1 and move our middle school and high school start times to 8:30am or later. Specifically, we request that the ISD create a committee to determine how to make later start times happen. We do not need a committee to study the need; rather, we want a committee formed that will determine HOW we can make this happen, ideally to be implemented by the 2016/2017 school year. Petition Background Scientific research has proven that there is a shift in the circadian rhythm of adolescents. During this shift, it is hard for teens to fall asleep before 11pm or midnight, and they continue to produce melatonin well into the morning hours which makes it difficult to wake up. This shift coupled with early morning start times, results in chronic sleep deprivation which is bad for our kids on so many levels. When schools have delayed the start of the school day, communities have seen reduced tardiness, sleeping in class, and car crash rates, as well as improved attendance, graduation rates, and standardized test scores2. Some school districts have responded to the research and changed their start times. Since the discussion on school start times began more than a decade ago, not a single district that has made the change has decided to change back3. Saving money on transportation costs does not outweigh the damage done to the physiological and psychological functioning of middle and high school students. To improve the learning ability of students we call on the Issaquah School District Board and Superintendent to schedule transportation and start times so that no middle or high school in our district start earlier than 8:30 am. We can no longer continue to deprive our kids of adequate sleep. Please help make this very important change by signing this petition. Thank you! 1 American Academy of Pediatrics Policy Statement, August 25, 2014, School Start Times for Adolescents 2, 3 Los Angeles Times, August 23, 2010, Later School Start Times and ZZZs to A’s