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.

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