I am a charter school teacher. I have seen first-hand the need for greater amounts of funding for public education.

Budgets have been cut and new policies have been put into place that will no longer allow subsidized daycare payments for children over the age of eight, efective January 2013 additional cuts will effect 300 seven year olds. I am a childcare center owner that is very active in the community. Young mothers that are working hard to overcome their low economic situations are now faced with the dilemma as to how they are going to maintain employment without the assistance with childcare. I am losing ALL of my afterschool children because they are over the age of 8 and after January 2013, I will face more lost because the county will stop paying benefits for 300 additonal 7 year olds.

I'm a charter school teacher in the Bay Area, and know first-hand how under-funded our public school system is. The governor will be issuing his proposed 2013 state budget in January; now's the perfect time to put education funding on his radar.

The costs of college tuition have been increasing each year and many lower class Americans have been hindered in their journey to higher education. How are Americans, that are already working full-time to afford high living expenses, expected to pay exorbitant rates for education meant to help or better themselves? HIgher education is important and should be affordable to all levels of Americans wanting to increase their knowledge and situation.

Florida’s Corporate Tax Credit Scholarship Program allows companies to redirect a portion of their tax liabilities to fund scholarships for low-income students and only means that the rest of us, the taxpaying citizens of Florida must pick up the tab. The Program is designed to divert funds that would otherwise go to public schools and use those funds to create scholarships, sending children and millions of dollars to private, largely religious schools. These schools generally have little oversight and are responsible to no one.

I have relatives that are currently attending Chicago Public Schools which are grossly underfunded in some areas should be treated with the same urgency as Charter Schools because public money from the Lottery is available but not used for something as important as educating children and hiring more teachers

Arts education is important in K-12, schools, yet it is always the first thing to be cut. Arts education is a top priority that helps kids express themselves, spark creative thinking, aid problem solving skills, and so much more. The proportion of 18-year-olds who had arts education as children has declined with each wave of SPPA, reaching a low of less than half in the most recent survey. 93% agree the arts are vital to providing a well rounded education for children. 86% agree an arts education encourages and assists in the improvement of a child's attitudes toward school. 83% believes that arts education helps teach children to communicate effectively with adults and peers. 79% agree incorporation the arts into education is a first step in adding back what's missing in public education today. 54% rated the importance of arts education a "ten" on a scale of one to ten. nea.gov/research/2008-SPPA-ArtsLearning.pdf www.nasaa-arts.org/Publications/critical-evidence.pdf

Improving Education

The Archdiocese of New York plans on shutting 27 Archdiocesan Schools. The selling of just one painting that the Catholic Church owns would save our schools. Closing the schools will impact 5,000 students who for the most part are nonwhite and below the poverty level.

Yes, because they are very small shools and no sports for girls and in highschool not many choice of subjects. Also not as many qualified teachers.

Black African History taught in education system in the United States of America indept!

As a parent with children in public school, I've watched my town struggle to balance its budget to cope with rising enrollment, health insurance, energy and special education costs. The only options are to cut other services or raise property taxes. Congress passed legislation to mandate special education but never appropriated enough funds to pay the 40% federal share, pushing the cost down to the state and local levels.