The USDA's new proposed guidelines to the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 (Section 204) provide a CRUCIAL opportunity to protect children from being preyed upon in their schools by the food industry. Food marketing in schools has been linked to the rise of childhood obesity, and the current proposed USDA guidelines, while an important first step, only address regulating marketing on school grounds during school hours. If we do not act now, food companies will continue to undermine parents and school administrators in their efforts to provide a healthy environment for children to learn. Sign this petition by April 28th, and tell the USDA you demand that regulations on marketing extend to after-school hours.

We urge our Department of Education and our local policy-makers to address the following topics: 1. Establishing a universal definition and understanding of the term "dyslexia" within our state education code. 2. Mandating early screening and identification of at-risk students. 3. Mandating Alabama teacher certification and ongoing professional development to include training on dyslexia and appropriate intervention strategies. 4. Mandating the use of appropriate research based reading interventions for at-risk students in both general and special education programs. 5. Providing for access to assistive technology for all at-risk students in both general and special education programs. We call on Alabama policy-makers to support students with dyslexia. It is time for Alabama Public Schools to catch up with the science on reading and dyslexia. AL Residents (18+) ONLY Follow Us! www.facebook.com/DecodingDyslexiaALA twitter.com/DecodingAL google.com/+Decodingdyslexiaala www.decodingdyslexiaALA.com

Why does Pennsylvania need tuition-free community colleges? +College is becoming so expensive that is becoming only a dream for many Pennsylvania families. +A college degree means higher wages. Over their lifetime, someone with a college degree can expect to earn almost $1 million more than someone with only a high school diploma. +Business owners looking to start up or relocate look for educated workforces. +States as diverse as Tennessee and Oregon are considering tuition-free community college. +The cost of educating a person at the beginning of their career means less reliance on social services in the future.

The Koch brothers just got the Kansas legislature to kick public education to the curb. This weekend, Kansas conservatives tackled inequities in public school funding to push for an elimination of due process for teacher firings and the start of mass layoffs. Due process hearings protect Kansas teachers from arbitrary firings. Denying this right to teachers leaves them at the mercy of any angry parent or corrupt administrator — and conservatives, paid for and backed by the Kochs that got them elected, rammed the change through by voting in a covert 4am meeting! Kansas Democrats and the teachers union are fighting to challenge this bill's legality and stop the Kochs from ruining Kansas students' educations. But they need our voices to make their fight stronger!

Re-opening Nathan Hale School as an elementary school is the RIGHT choice for the East Side and the Town of Manchester. We, the undersigned Parents, Teachers, Business Owners and concerned Neighbors support the health & well-being of the East Side Neighborhood, a VITAL part of our town. The return of our beloved elementary school will mutually benefit Manchester and ALL of its residents.

As families with students who are approaching high school age, we are concerned that DPS's significant changes to the design and construction of Phase I of the Northfield High School will put the success of the high school at risk. DPS is asking parents to send their children to a partially-built high school. Students will bear the risk of a future bond passage to complete what was scheduled to be built in Phase I when voters approved the 2012 bond. The planned Phase 2 on the 2016 bond was intended to build out needed capacity, not to finish the common spaces Phase 1 was to provide and that DPS construction services said would be more cost-effective to build all at once in Phase 1. As Denver residents, we are committed to this city and Denver Public Schools. The success of this high school is a city-wide issue. DPS has a chance to build this high school community where students from all over Denver can find their place, push their boundaries and succeed.

I want our wonderful little school, The Mickey Mantle School, to be able to continue .

I applied for Indian Health Service Scholarships and was told I was the top IHS candidate, but not chosen, because someone changed my year of completion on my application. I asked my congressional member to investigate and was told "he doesn't want to get involved." Indian Health Service personnel admitted they shredded my application. "That's our usual procedures." It did not stop me, I took out student loans and now will spend the rest of my life repaying them. I choose to work for American Indian non-profits and sovereign nations.

Over the last three years, students across Pennsylvania have been subjected to deep budget cuts. Families have been forced to pay higher property taxes. School districts are expected to meet higher standards with less funding. Pennsylvania has become one of only three states without a funding formula. Please do everything you can to support Pennsylvania's greatest investment: our children.

The PubBoard is a committee that supervises student publications at Seattle Central Community College. It is currently chaired by the Dean of Student Leadership: the same department that controls funding and personnel management of Seattle Central's student publications. Such concentration of authority over student press is an unacceptable threat to the press' public mission. We urge President Killpatrick to appoint a neutral faculty member (i.e. someone who is acceptable to both student journalists and to Student Leadership) as chair of the PubBoard, so that student publications will be supervised in a fair, transparent, and accountable manner.

The "BRAC bills" should not be enacted for the following reasons: 1) SB 672 & HB 1178 dilute the representation of city residents and African-Americans. These bills would radically reduce the number of school board members and eliminate provisions that help protect minority representation. Currently EBRPSS is comprised of 11 single-member districts. SB 672 & HB 1178 reduce the board to 6 single member districts with 1 at-large member. In addition, they eliminate the current requirement that the redistricting plan be approved by a majority of the Baton Rouge delegation as well as the stipulation that since the population of the city of Baton Rouge is more than half of the parish population, the city’s representation on the school board should be proportionate to its population. While the number of board members could be reduced (9 single member districts?) to allow for more efficient management, such a drastic reduction coupled with the elimination of protections for equitable representation would allow the board to be disproportionately influenced by voters in the unincorporated areas of the parish which are whiter and wealthier than those within Baton Rouge city limits. In short, these bills will likely dilute the voting power of city residents who are largely African-American. 2) SB 636 and HB 1177 require EBRPSS to create and manage a “common enrollment system” which does not improve but inhibits “choice.” Common enrollment systems are promoted by the Center for Reinventing Public Education (CRPE), the organization which helped BRAC write the legislation, as a means of allowing for effective cooperation between traditional public school systems and charter schools. EBRPSS would be required to not only manage the system but to include charter schools in this process at no cost to the charter schools. In New Orleans, 74 of the 85 schools participate in a common enrollment system called OneApp. There are no neighborhood schools in the decentralized system. Parents identify up to eight schools per child. The enrollment system then assigns the student to a school based upon the student’s needs and availability. Once assigned to a school, a student is expected to attend the entire year regardless of the parent’s or student’s satisfaction. If students wish to be “released” from their assigned schools after October 1st, they must petition the school board and the prospective school for permission to transfer. How does this improve choice? It’s not clear it does, but it does guarantee charter schools a steady student population every year. And while students must seek permission to be “released” from their assigned school, the charter school administrators are not prohibited from “releasing” students at their discretion. They retain the privilege of “counseling out” or expelling students they deem unsuitable. The personal testimony of Ashana Bigard, a parent and community advocate in New Orleans, regarding the effect of New Orleans’ OneApp offers a far different perspective than that of CRPE, BRAC, and the authors of these bills (1). 3) SB 636 and HB 1177’s restrictions on the per pupil allocation jeopardize our school system’s ability to maintain specialized programs for students with disabilities and exceptionalities, wrap around services, and magnet schools. According to the recent budget, EBRPSS spends 5.8% on administrative services compared to Jefferson Parish, a large district, which spends 9.1% and Zachary, a top rated district, which spends 6.8%. Clearly its administrative costs are not excessive. And yet, these bills require that the central administration keep no more than 3% of the per pupil amount allocated for each student. In order to comply with the mandate that the money follow the child, the remaining funds, excluding those for retirement and legacy costs, must be directed to the schools. Currently, EBRPSS is able to cut costs through economies of scale savings. (Because of its size EBRPSS is able to purchase in bulk, negotiate lower costs, and serve specialized populations more efficiently.) EBRPSS is then able to use those savings to fund schools for students with disabilities like Southdowns, magnets like BRCVPA, and wrap around services like extended day. This bill would prohibit the system from using those savings in this manner because the per pupil allocation must be directed to the school. Moreover, those savings are likely to be less if principals contract on their own because the system’s bulk purchasing power will be diminished. One of the primary advantages traditional public school systems have over charter schools is their ability to pool resources to serve the community as a whole. Rather than build upon that strength, these bills eliminate it. Once again the policies in these bills would benefit charter schools, not the children in our community. The threat to magnet schools is especially worth noting in light of the demographic realities of our area and the limitations of charter schools. Baton Rouge is geographically segregated. Magnet schools were created to satisfy the federal desegregation order. They are the only schools in Baton Rouge that serve a diverse student body and do so especially well. The awards EBRPSS’ magnet schools and their students have received are too numerous to mention. (A study performed in Connecticut found magnet school students consistently outperformed their peers in schools with more homogeneous populations no matter the race (2). ) In stark contrast, the Civil Rights Project at UCLA found that charter schools are effectively resegregating public education (3). To enact policies that privilege charter schools and jeopardize the schools system’s ability to maintain magnet programs demonstrates a lack of appreciation for diversity and a tacit acceptance of the resegregation of our public schools. 4) Senate Bill 636 and House Bill 1177 will curtail the educational opportunities of children living in pover...

I am a law student at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Many of my colleagues came to law school in order to make a difference in the lives of the most marginalized members of our society. Upon graduation, my colleagues will be working to address racial justice, environmental justice, intimate partner violence, juvenile justice, education reform, LGBT equality, healthcare, and many other important issues. Many of us have taken on significant debt in order to pursue our dreams, and public interest law students will take jobs that will not pay nearly enough to make their debt manageable. Capping Public Service Loan Forgiveness at $57,500 will spell the end of public interest lawyering. Only the wealthiest members of our country will be able to afford to go to law school and then choose to work in a low-paying public service job while managing, in some cases, hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt accrued over undergraduate and graduate education. Senator Casey, we urge you to use your position on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee to oppose the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program in its current form in the 2015 budget.