The quality of education at Bowling Green State University is at risk because the university administration has abruptly and arbitrarily decided to terminate the contracts of 100 full-time faculty. On January 18, 2013 the president of Bowling Green State University, Mary Ellen Mazey, announced that the administration would be eliminating 100 hard-working and dedicated non-tenure track faculty at the end of spring semester 2013. The decision was not based on the quality of the instructors’ teaching, and no plan was offered to redress the inevitable imbalance of faculty-to-student ratio. In his remarks to the Faculty Senate January 15th, BGSU Provost Rodney Rogers spoke approvingly of allowing class sizes to balloon from a normal enrollment of 30 students to 50 or more students. In September 2012, President Mary Ellen Mazey announced her intent to increase BGSU’s enrollment by 6,000 students by the year 2020. In spite of these plans for growth in enrollment, BGSU’s top administrators aim to significantly reduce the number of faculty. Clearly, the administration’s short-sighted and mismanaged plan portends a troubling future for BGSU students: bigger classes, fewer faculty, and lower educational quality. The BGSU administration has cited the need to save money in the face of impending cuts to state funding. In Ohio’s new formula for public universities, BGSU’s share of state money will fall, and the administration claims that it must take steps to keep costs low. Yet its plan to save money in the short term hurts BGSU in the long term—course completion and graduation will not improve with fewer faculty and increasing the number of students in classes. The value of a BGSU degree should not be compromised by careless plans that put short-term monetary savings ahead of long-term quality education. Plain and simple: Decreasing students’ interactions with faculty diminishes students’ educational experience. By signing this petition you are sending a clear and direct message to Dr. Mary Ellen Mazey, Dr. Rodney Rogers, and Mr. William J. Primrose III that you REJECT their plan. Supporters of BGSU call on the administration to disavow its intent to cut the number of faculty and increase class sizes. Please sign the petition to protect the future of quality education at Bowling Green State University.

We have the money for St. Augustine School but now we don't have the money for 27 School's that going to close one after another. I'm effected in many ways as my children want to go to three (3) different schools now and lose their friends. Including 170 parents that have to go thru same situation my marriages are falling apart. Please someone help us now, they are making final decisions the regional board (two schools already have been closed).

WIA is a government tuition assistance program for unemployed workers who want to retrain themselves for in-demand jobs, such as computer networking. The problem is that many participating schools have dramatically raised their tuition costs (my school went up over 208%!) in order to 'milk the program' (?). The WIA contract REQUIRES participants to complete their studies or face penalties, so many students are forced to take out loans they may not be able to repay in order to complete their funding or - in over a quarter of the cases - they drop out and never finish the program, having wasted two years of their lives in a futile effort to improve themselves.

Educational cuts to TX schools have been significant in the last few years. Support those people who have been leaders in increasing funding for education.

We the student have been attending the Medical Assistant Course here at UEI, and we are about to lose and recive another instructor for the remainding of our time here. With the time spent in the class not only did we learn and extreme amount of Medical Assistant material, we the students have grown and built a bond with Mr. Rosales. The students education should be your top priority and the re-locating Mr. Rosales to another class should be stopped.

As a former educator, I realize the impact and importance of early education. Children who are prepared for school excel from the start. I was able to pay for my children's early education. But, what about those who don't have funds for that or don't consider it important? Hawaii needs to improve their national rating of public education from #46 to #1. Please support early education for 4 year old Hawaii keiki.

Michael Madigan has tabled his plan for now, but we need to stop it from ever happening. He wants to shift the teacher pension responsibility to the local school districts. In other words taxpayers, he wants you to pay the pension obligation AGAIN, because our state legislators misappropriated the funds the first time we paid it.

support Glenda Ritz in her programs.Not in support of the voucher system, it will take away the best teachers, and public schools will not have the drive to move ahead

I became disabled while I was in school. I attended a total of 3 months of school. And now owe $12,000.00 in student loans. I have tried to get my student loan forgiven to no avail. At one point I thought I had succeded, but years later recieved a pay or else from a collection agency.

A local business is proposing to build an asphalt batching facility next to our community's elementary school

This is an educator’s petition to protect our students. As teachers, we have the responsibility to protect our students which starts with classroom safety. We witness first-hand how gun violence has affected our students. Each year in America, 30,000 people are killed by guns (Nicholas Kristof). Many students have lost loved ones, and many teachers have lost students due to gun violence. In some communities in America, it is far easier to obtain a gun than access a public library. More guns are not the answer. The high capacity magazines make any gun a military grade weapon, enabling the slaughtering of young as happened at Sandy Hook, Columbine, Northern Illinois University, Virginia Tech., Aurora, CO; Oakland, CA; and Lancaster, PA. There is no reason for individuals to own military style guns and assault weapons. They should be relegated to military use only. Guns that can kill 10 children in 30 seconds have no place in society. By requiring universal background checks, convicted felons and people with mental illnesses will be prevented from making gun purchases, and the registering of gun sales helps law enforcement trace guns at crime scenes. It has been proven that more guns create more carnage (Mark Follman). Therefore, teachers and administrators would likely do more harm than good if required to lock and load during a crisis situation. Our role is to inspire, instruct, guide, and nurture and not to kill. It is important for educators to band together and be part of the dialogue on gun, student, and school safety. We recognize that these measures will not eliminate all gun violence, but will greatly reduce the ability for mass murders. Teachers, please sign this petition for our students’ sake. Passing strong gun safety legislation will keep more of our students alive. In 2013, your voice will be heard on real gun legislation. Help us create a safer America for our students. Sincerely, Olivia Bigsby Elementary School Teacher Sources: Nicolas Kristof http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/16/opinion/sunday/kristof-do-we-have-the-courage-to-stop-this.html?_r=2& Marc Follman http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/09/mass-shootings-investigation “After Bullets Hit bystanders, Protocol Questions” http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/26/nyregion/bystanders-shooting-wounds-caused-by-the-police.html?_r=0 “Mass Shootings in America,” http://www.nycrimecommission.org/initiative1-shootings.php

For years now Portland Public Schools has been systematically closing down its neighborhood schools, primarily those serving students and families of color. Last year they closed 2 schools. This year they are preparing to close yet another one. This practice undermines public education, segregates schools and tears neighborhoods apart. If PPS truly believes in equity like it claims to, school closures are NOT a solution!