Like many school districts in Pennsylvania, the Allentown School District has faced budget deficits for the last three years. The State of Pennsylvania cut revenue to the District by almost ten million dollars in 2011 with a loss of over 200 positions. They are seeking to cut an additional 144 positions from the District, with the elimination or curtailment of full day kindergarten, art, physical education and library at the elementary level and related arts at the middle school level. High School core subject areas will also lose teachers, along with English as a Second Language and Special Education. All of these cuts will cause class sizes to soar and will not allow students the same opportunities as surrounding districts. All students across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania deserve better. Sign this petition to ask the Allentown School Board not to cut teachers and programs that are beneficial to the students of Allentown.

YES

This reform will encourage everyone (students, parents, and teachers) in the educational process to meet their potential and reward those who are doing their job. We need to reward those who are working hard to achieve a year or more growth.

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.