As the legislature continues to cut public funding for education, we believe that voter approved funding by proposition must be restored. A true conservative invests in the future and for Arizona that is education.

This bill would eliminate the whole post-secondary department that governs the Alabama two-year community college system and replace it with a board that is appointed by the governor. This is nothing more than a way for politicians to get their hands on the Education Trust Fund, not to mention that it has the potential of turning all community colleges into technical schools, leaving underprivileged individuals no chance of an academia education, which will also result in thousands of educators to lose their jobs. This is big slap in the face to both the citizens and staff of the way two-year college system across Alabama!

As of recently, the faculty of Loy Norrix High School have started to send home girls wearing leggings or other "revealing" clothing. Some have even been harrassed by security guards before being sent home. Others have been humiliated or marginalized in front of their classmates. This is simply unacceptable and is unsafe to the well-being of our female student body. Our bodies are ours, and that is not up for interpretation. We will no longer tolerate being oversexualized by the faculty and administrators; we deserve the right to wear what makes us comfortable without being harrassed or being deprived of our right to learn.

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 was intended for education, but was 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, discontentment, 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, were 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

My petition is about how high schoolers should start school later in the morning because it is scientifically proven that the brain does not start working until 10am.

I'm starting this petition to ensure our California UC schools get the funding they need. In a world where many nations provide free higher education to their people, it is an embarrassment and a shame that deeply offends me that we have such a tremendous issue with student debt and the problem isn't going away: It's getting worse! This atrocity must end and we have to start that process now!

I am starting this petition I am unhappy by how much sugar is allowed and encouraged in the schools. My mother recently died from diabetes complications and I witnessed the results of a high sugar, low nutrition intake. No child should be encouraged to have ill health. Schools should instead create a statewide policy of eating healthy snacks, enjoying vegetables and finding it fun to bring healthy treats to school. Everyone benefits when you change the foods that are allowed in the schools to ones that are good for a child's overall health.

After careful review, the Chandler Unified School District governing board, and the parents of K-12 students resolved that the proposed gubernatorial budget, if enacted, continues to degrade the ability of Arizona school districts to provide an excellent education for all students. The proposed state budget will cut $6 million from Chandler Unified School district funding. This is in addition to the already enacted district cuts of over $36 million the past five years. At the same time, proposals to arbitrarily cut essential "outside the classroom" funding jeopardizes support functions required to maintain a safe, healthy and effective school environment. The Chandler Unified School District governing board also resolves that proposed measures, such as HB2303, constitute micro management by state government that removes local community control of school operations contrary to the wishes of local citizens. For example, over 94 percent of the 50,000+ parents in the district support the current school start schedule, which would be radically changed by HB2303 with no justification, producing significant disruption to parents and staff members. The Chandler Unified School District governing board, and the parents of K-12 students oppose the proposed budget legislation. We urge the Governor and the Arizona legislature to reconsider these proposals, which we strongly believe will be harmful to our education system, students, parents and district staff. We request that our schools be properly funded and we reject any measures that reduce local community control of our schools.

The practice of government-mandated high-stakes testing is harmful to our children, their teachers and our public education system and must be stopped in its tracks, because they are not scientifically based; foster test-driven education; foster coercion over cooperation; support complicity of corporate interests; promote a culture of lying, cheating and exploitation within the school community; present a racial and economic bias that is detrimental to second language students, impoverished students, and students of color; put at risk, by personal data collection, our children’s constitutional right to privacy, and blatantly manifest the over-reach of the federal government into the lives of our children, teachers and public education systems in Idaho.

There is concern for making college affordable, there are people I know that would like to go to college but money is an issue. My sister is in college and she works two jobs just to stay in school. My parents help us but they can only do so much. Why do some go to college free and many others struggle just to afford it? Make college affordable now!

The brain research is in--children's brains learn and grow best in supportive, cooperative environments in which they can actively participate, not in demanding, competitive environments in which they must passively receive and regurgitate state-dictated knowledge. Their futures and the future of our society is at stake!

Holyoke, MA is a district that serves a high percentage of students who live in poverty and whose first language is not English. In Massachusetts, schools and districts are ranked on a scale of 1-5 based on data taken from high stakes standardized test scores and other data such as dropout rates, all of which are directly correlated with income. Level 5 districts face the severe sanction of being placed into state receivership. Because of the misuse of this data, Holyoke has been rated a Level 4 district and is currently facing the possibility of a Level 5 rating and losing control of its schools to a state-appointed receiver. Removing local control will do nothing to address the real issue affecting student achievement, which is economic injustice. Holyoke needs state support for its schools and students, not a state takeover. Read more: http://www.massteacher.org/issues_and_action/ongoing_issues/holyoke.aspx