Student Loan Forgiveness -- targeted at "for profit" centers of learning.

Henry Hudson Regional School is planning to emit the Senior Slideshow from the Senior Graduation Ceremony. Last year, the graduation's run time was under an hour, with the Senior Slideshow. Last year, several students did not submit pictures to the Slideshow, and yet, the show went on, using those students' yearbook pictures instead. The two thirds of students that submitted their pictures should not be penalized for the faults of others, and in past years, they were not. Please, consider keeping the great tradition of the Senior Slideshow intact.

We are closer now than ever to holding Ms. Rhee accountable. I believe we should follow Atlanta's example and do so. See the link to the memo published in one of the Washington Post blogs. http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/page/local/consultants-memo-on-dc-schools/101/ The first year Ms. Rhee was in office she offered teachers $8K and principals $10K for making gains of 20 percentage points or more in math or reading. I remember the start of the following school year after the test scores came back. Teachers were gathered at the convention center for a back to school pep rally. Rhee used the word "unbelievable" at least 10 times to describe those test scores gains yet she handed out the checks to those staff anyway. Staff of several schools were handed checks. One school claimed to have made gains 30% in reading AND 40% in math. 40%!!!! I mean if those scores had been real, every magazine in the country would have featured the staff on the cover of their magazines. Anyone with two brain cells should have investigated because anyone who works with real educational improvement knows how very difficult even a 5% gain can be. The memo further proves that there was enough evidence in that year to support further investigations. I believe Michele Rhee suspected that those scores were false, yet because they made her look good, she never properly nor fully investigated. Instead she paid out the big bucks. I wonder how much of her overall success of raising test scores 6% in reading and 15% for elementary schools over the 4 years she served came from those dramatic (yet likely false) gains of that first year. http://video.msnbc.msn.com/all-in-/51523921#51523921 Bottom line, a person without integrity is a person not to be trusted, nor respected. Lets bring justice to yet another "DC scandal."

Dr. Moreno has been teaching at CBC about 10 years. He been teaching Chicano history, Interculture studies, World Civ 3 and Mexico history. They made Dr. Moreno a adjunct instead a fulltime professor they brought someone else to teach his classes and does not have the same knowledge as Dr. Moreno.

School-Within-School (SWS) will move to the Goding Elementary School building that currently houses Prospect Learning Center at 10th & F Street NE this fall. School Within a School is one of our most popular neighborhood elementary schools and has historically admitted a majority of neighborhood students through its local school boundaries. Currently, it has the highest percentage of neighborhood children of any school on Capitol Hill. School parents and neighbors applauded loudly when we learned it would receive its own school building at 10th & F, but we are very disappointed to learn that DCPS has dropped the school boundaries and is not providing ANY neighborhood preference. Already this year, two families who live directly across the street from the school had their children denied admission to SWS. Last year, SWS has the one of the few longest waitlists for PreK3 admissions in the entire city with 275 families seeking, but not obtaining admission. With a continuing boom in our neighborhood’s young population and no preference for neighborhood families, Capitol Hill parents stand to lose one of our most popular schools as a viable public school option for our children.

Physical education leads to learning, leads to decreasing obesity and other related diseases, and rising health care cost.

My son was shot once in the back and twice in the face by a pellet gun without the teacher being aware of the incident. He was shot by two students who regularly bully him. Schools should implement a bully free policy so that victims and bullies will know that harming other students is not tolerated.

We attend Spokane Community College, which is about to lose the labyrinth and possible other tools on campus. The student body's health and well being should be priority, and this decision should be stopped.

While grieving the death of her mother, 19-year teaching veteran Carla Hale was called into her principal's office at Bishop Watterson High School in Columbus, Ohio, and told she was being terminated for violating Diocesan Policy 45116.1, the code barring teachers from violating "moral laws." When pushed for specifics, administrators told Carla an anonymous parent had complained after seeing Carla's long-time partner, Julie, mentioned in her mother's obituary. Carla Hale was a much loved and well-respected teacher at Bishop Watterson. Please sign the petition to the Diocese of Columbus asking them to comply with a Columbus ordinance prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation and immediately reinstate her as a teacher.

Principal George Aulenbacher, After the recent media attention surrounding Katelyn Campbell's outspoken protest against Pam Stenzel's event at George Washington High School, I wanted to congratulate you and your institution for producing such an accomplished student. Surely you must feel privileged to know that you have presided over the education and awakening of such an student as accomplished as Campbell. She has demonstrated every tenet of the American civil ideal. She is courageous, socially aware, and thinks critically. She stands up for what she believes, and engages in the time-honored tradition of civil disobedience to affect necessary change. She holds her ground even in the face of hostile authority because she knows, and now you know, that her position is based on evidence and righteousness rather than rhetoric or politics. As you know, West Virginia ranks as the ninth highest state in pregnancies in the United States. Abstinence-only education is a fad that has lasted for more than a decade, and it honestly hasn't helped very much. Pretty consistently, states across the country with policies of abstinence-only education have higher instances of unwanted pregnancies and STI transmission. Furthermore, Steubenville High School also has an abstinence-only sex education policy. Clearly, abstinence-only education may not be the most effective method of controlling the negative side effects of teen sexuality. Campbell has been able to look at this data, draw a conclusion that something needs to change, and has made a suggestion for that change. Such rationality in the face of hysterical rhetoric along the lines of "every instance of sexual contact will lead to a sexually transmitted infection" (which you absolutely must admit you know to be untrue, if you've ever had a child or been in a serious relationship) is admirable. The education of high school students is a very serious undertaking and so many negative influences can interfere with accomplishing this goal. Numbered among these are poverty, child abuse, bullying, learning disabilities--and it's so difficult to get right down to the process of raising young adults to be knowledgeable, successful, independent, socially aware, critically thinking Americans with all of these distractions. Adding unwanted pregnancies and STIs to the mix clearly exacerbates this difficulty. You, Campbell, and I can probably all agree on this. And this is why you should be proud of Campbell, and proud of yourself for being part of the administration that has led to her graduation and acceptance into a prestigious college. She recognizes that these are problems, and also recognizes that misinformation and fear-mongering like that provided by Stenzel are not the best method to bringing teens into successful adulthood with knowledge, independence, awareness, and critical thinking skills. Not only does she recognize this, but she also has the courage to try to do something about it and the ability to articulate the change that needs to be made clearly and concisely. As Steve Prefontaine said, "To give anything less than the best is to sacrifice the gift." Campbell has refused to sacrifice her gift, and is giving her best. Can you say, objectively, that you are doing the same? You might be, because Campbell is one of your successes. You make more Campbells, and you're building a better America for all of us. If you build more Pam Stenzels, Principal Aulenbacher, then you are sacrificing your gift. Yours, Jacob Lewis

Poor leadership is a cancer to any organization, especially a school. It can manifest itself in many ways, including: low morale; poor communication; unprofessionalism; mismanagement of resources; lack of motivation and inspiration; and feelings of betrayal, mistrust, and disregard among the constituents being served and retaliation among those who ask questions or demand accountability. Children learn very early on how to navigate a system to their advantage and we can not afford another 7 years of "hoping" things get better. If our children continue to be exposed to inadequate leadership with meager expectations, they have a greater chance of becoming inadequate students who give meager effort. The time is now.

Countless scores of people have sought higher education and have come away with nothing more than a bill of sale after attending a for-profit instituition. Their financial futures are mortgaged and they are enslaved to a debt that they will never be able to repay, their credits won't transfer to other institutions, but it wouldn't matter because for-profit colleges have enslaved them with massive debts which exclude them from further assistance to better their futures. The for-profit college industry needs to be held accountable, and all of those affected should be freed to pursue their dreams without the specter of a debt that can't ever be repaid hanging over their heads until the day that they die.