Huge news: Senator Bernie Sanders just introduced legislation to make public colleges tuition-free. This is after Senators Elizabeth Warren and Charles Schumer, Congressional Progressive Caucus leaders, and others introduced a congressional resolution saying students should be able to graduate from public colleges and universities without debt. This is part of a big push to make debt-free college a central issue in 2016. Show presidential candidates and others in Congress that you want momentum on this issue. Sign on as a citizen cosponsor of the debt-free college resolution.

Since 2000, when adjusted for inflation, state funding for Illinois public universities has been cut by over 35%. As a result, average tuition and fees for entering freshman in Fall 2014 was the 5th highest in the country and the highest in the Midwest. Seventy percent of graduating seniors in Illinois have student debt that averages over $28,000. Gov. Rauner’s budget would increase tuition by over 50%, gut programs, and lay-off staff and faculty critical to providing quality education at all Illinois public universities. Public higher education is an economic engine for the state of Illinois. Not only does a college degree result in higher earning potential for our students and graduates, but an educated workforce is crucial to improving productivity, ingenuity, and scientific, technological, and entrepreneurial innovation. Education is what drives our economy, and it must be funded.

I am a victim of this for-profit fraudulent business that operates its scam in the name of education. The only thing that I gained from this experience is worse financial despair than I have ever had in my entire life! They destroyed millions of lives! Please help put an end to these predatory businesses operating under the name of education!

I am a victim and a former student of Everest University. The college misled and deceived numerous students, some of whom were low-income, veterans or single parents. The colleges also increased their tuition three times a year. Students were misled that they would be able to obtain employment in their fields, but they were deceived. There were loans taken out in their names, which none of them authorized.

Legislators will need to act now and support AB 1112 to save our parent education and family English literacy programs. Parenting and Family English Literacy classes that helped thousands of parents learn to raise their children better and get basic English skills will be closed as school districts implement AB 86, which will end their funding. AB 1112 will address this concern by including Parenting and Family English Literacy programs within the narrowed focus of the adult and continuing education programs that will receive dedicated funding through AB 86. The Local Control Funding Formula [LCFF] can not provide a reliable source of funding to keep these programs operating, so the Parent education and Family Literacy classes will disappear next year unless legislators act now to enact AB 1112 or similar legislation to protect these valuable and effective programs.

My daughter has two advanced degrees from prestigious universities, many other skills, but is still under-employed. She has so much debt that she must lived at home for now. (She’d love a good full-time job that would pay for living expenses and health insurance. We are paying for the health insurance at this time – which she found through the marketplace.) It is worth it in so many ways, including economically, to invest in our future, by having the government forgive educational debt at this time.

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.