When teens get the required 8.5 to 9 hours of sleep: • School attendance goes up, • Tardiness decreases, • They sleep less in class, • They get in fewer traffic accidents, • Visit nurses and counselors less often, and, • Report less depression and irritability. Starting school before 8:15 AM, without a doubt, undermines optimal academic achievement.

With so many of us facing seemingly insurmountable student loan debt, something needs to be done. Students, both current and recently graduated are the future of this economy. It is well within reason to believe that we could provide the boost to the economy that is currently needed. However, many of us need help. I have more then $120K in student debt and for the last 3 years have made an average of $11 p/h. Quite often I am faced with making less in one month then what is owed on a monthly basis for my student loans, mostly private loans that I was made to feel I needed and were not properly explained to me. A solution to this is for the government to buy the private loans the way banks buy loans from other banks. From here place them into the same category as government student loans so that they may become eligible for income based repayment. At this point take all loans that are in/near default and give them forbearance to bring them current. This will allow everyone who is eligible to apply for IBR options and significantly reduce individual monthly expenses while still keeping everyone liable for the loans they used. Now we have the potential for more of our income to help with economic growth, and still be able to pay rent, utilities and our loans. All we need is the support of our government.

TRIO is a program that serves undergrade DePaul University students with academic support and mentoring to first generation students, low income students, and/or disabled students. There is a constant demand for money to address the growing need of Trio students yet funding is being cut. If TRIO had more funding it would be able to branch out and help more students.

33 years ago the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) was created to provide quality educational programming to the American people; they have done so with many award winning series (see links below). Unfortunately, many of their best programs are no longer available, or are only accessible via commercial DVDs or streaming, which make them inaccessible to low-income & bandwidth-limited schools & families most in need of what PBS has to offer. Today their federal funding is under threat; we're asking PBS, as a public service, to release medium-resolution subtitled versions of their past programming to download, distribute, & display for non-commercial purposes, so that everyone can make use of this great public resource, & appreciate what public broadcasting has to offer. Great programs for lifelong learning (copy & paste URLs): Science: http://amzn.com/lm/R25ZRLJ9ZZXTO2 American History: http://amzn.com/lm/RJ1V655C5INYI Primary Education: http://amzn.com/lm/R2XQVYMY4QXQR9 World History: http://amzn.com/lm/R3KLXZHRP1H0YG More on PBS: http://valuepbs.org/

Louisville Municipal School District students and parents are calling for the immediate adoption of the Mississippi Student Bill of Rights by their schools. The MS SBR's articulate ten rights that all MS students should have in their schools. For too long our rights have been consistently and routinely violated; this must stop immediately and the protections of MS SBR must be adopted by our schools. Students deserve the right to be treated humanely, with respect, free from discrimination and prejudice as they pursue their education. Students deserve exceptional teachers, administrators, and other staff whose first goal is always the best interest of the students. Students deserve resources and information that will provide us with opportunities to achieve our full potential. The school environment must be a conducive place for learning and achieving, not a place of criminalization and penalization. Students are the future of MS, we should be treated as such if this state is to succeed and prosper. Adopting the MS SBR is a necessary and critical step in achieving all of this for Louisville Municipal School District students. Mississippi Student Bill of Rights Educate.Agitate.Organize. Preamble: Our future depends on our preparation. We’re standing up for a real education. All students regardless of status deserve a free, quality public education; education is a human right. For far too long MS has perpetuated a system full of inequalities and inequities. We demand that those in power recognize these very serious historical and contemporary issues and take immediate actions to rectify them for the best interest of all Mississippi’s students. We will work together to keep our decision makers accountable to those they represent; ensuring a bright, prosperous future for all Mississippians. These 10 points below represent how we can achieve this for all students: 1. Equal Opportunity: Equal quality education must be provided for all of us without regard to gender, race, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, sex, religion, national origin, or any other category that makes us the unique individuals we are. 2. Real Information: We must have access to real information and knowledge about sex, teen pregnancy, STDs and how these things affect our bodies and communities. Drugs are easier to find than real, accurate medical information about my body. 3. Respect: Treat us as key partners in changing our schools by ending the overly harsh, overly relied on zero-tolerance policies that push youth out of schools into the School to Prison Pipeline. The reliance on police in schools creates a hostile, prison-like environment that takes away our power to positively influence our schools and communities. 4. Safety: Every school must be a safe and supportive place for learning. To create a positive, productive learning environment we must feel comfortable and secure in our schools at all times. 5. The Best Teachers: End the reliance on faulty, inaccurate, and biased standardized testing by investing in us and providing us with the best teachers who inspire quality results in reading, writing, science, art, and music. 6. Tools: Provide us with the resources needed to learn: books, lab supplies, musical instruments, art supplies, computers, and the latest educational technology that will help us be competitive in the 21st century. 7. Leadership: We hold all leaders accountable for vision, courage, and results. We will do this by actively participating and pressuring our leaders to do what is best for us. 8. Extracurriculars: We deserve quality out of school activities to expand our opportunities and skills that give us safe, fun, and enriching places to be when not in school. 9. Starting Younger: We deserve quality pre-Kindergarten education. Kindergarten should be the next step, not the first step, in education. 10. Ready for Life: Our diplomas must not just be a piece of paper. Our leaders must take the necessary steps to ensure that our diplomas mean that we are ready for college, work, and life. This document was created by MS youth through the ACLU of MS’s Youth Justice Movement Project

Does your child struggle with concentration, behavior or health issues? It may be from the air quality at school. Do you know what cleaners are used, if air freshener is used, or if chemical fragrances are allowed? Is there a constant fresh air exchange in the building?Chemical fragrances can cause many health issues including asthma, cancer, fertility problems, and hormone disruption. Chemical fragrances impact everyones health but even more so in the small growing bodies of children.

This petition is to add more math 104A classes to CSULA.

I have had issues with depression when I first started college and began involving friends and staff but felt that, although they had the best intentions, tried to help in ways that made matters worse for the both of us. A group of us would like to see a policy implemented that requirs colleges and universities to include, in their curriculum, education on mental health awareness as a prevention tool for students and staff. There are counselors available and that is wonderful but peers and staff can help even more by knowing what to do and what not to do when faced with a frien, peer, or student that is showing signs of mental illness especially depression. Saying or doing the wrong thing can make matters much worse.

There are many Americans who have large amounts of student loan debt. With the current state of the economy, many are not paying student loans because they can not afford to. The banks and automobile industries have received bailouts. We need a student loan bailout. Let students start the next four years, debt free. The guidance counselors at my high school all went to college for free. When and why did we ever make education so costly?

The Federal Government should fund schools. A same amount of federal taxes would be assigned to all schools, thus eliminating disparities based on income. The teachers' salary ought to be uniform throughout the country with locality pays to account for cost of living in specific areas, as is done for DoD employees.

We, the Board of Directors of McRae-Gaines Learning Center, have nominated our Director, Sadie Moss as a “Woman Who Shines” for two reasons: first – she inspires us all with her “shining” example, and second – if we get enough votes for Sadie we could get $10,000 for McRae-Gaines – a historic school founded 30 years ago to give low-income children in Selma, Alabama a rigorous academic preparation beginning at 18 months of age. BUT – and this is the big one – we need your help and the help of all of your friends – because we need at least 3,000 votes - to win. YOU CAN HELP! And here is how! 1. Go to http://shine.yahoo.com/photos/public-service-1344924606-slideshow/sadie-m-moss-photo-1348936956.html? And VOTE FOR SADIE! Thank you so very much! McRae-Gaines Learning Center http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtabqYTXOBE http://selma.wsfa.com/business-directory/private-schools/74318/mcrae-learning-center

Public high schools in Anne Arundel County, MD currently start at 7:17 a.m., the earliest time in Maryland and among the earliest in the nation. Bus pickups begin as early as 5:50 a.m. Both health and education research show, and real-life experience confirms, that starting school so early is incompatible with the mental and physical well-being of most adolescents and undermines learning and achievement. The adolescent body clock is shifted, pushing the most important sleep into the early morning hours and making it difficult for most teenagers to fall asleep before 11 p.m. Our current school hours mean that even teenagers who refrain from overpacked schedules and electronic distractions are not physiologically able to get anything close to the approximately 9 hours of sleep per night needed by their growing brains and bodies. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have linked sleep deprivation in teens to a host of physical and mental health problems, including an increased risk of depression, suicidal thoughts, obesity, substance abuse, and other risky behaviors. Later school start times are associated with markedly reduced car crash rates, improved moods, and lower rates of depression, absenteeism, tardiness, and dropouts. The improvements in student achievement associated with later school start times benefit disadvantaged children approximately twice as much. Merely switching elementary and high school start times will not solve this problem because it will force our youngest children to go to school at unsafe hours as well. That’s why we are proposing 8 a.m. as a minimum opening class time and 7 a.m. as an earliest bus pick up time. These lower limits will ensure the physical and mental health and safety of children of all ages in our public schools, while still allowing the possibility of starting high schools even later, as most research suggests they should. Dr. Maxwell and Board of Education members, it's time to make this change. We respectfully ask that school schedules be set with the health, safety, and academic achievement of our county's students as top priorities. We also ask you to join the larger health and educational community in recognizing sleep and school hours as public health and equity issues rather than negotiable budget items. Instead of citing obstacles to change, we ask that you mobilize all stakeholders to resolve this problem using transportation software and creative solutions to overcome past roadblocks. AACPS needs to be at the forefront of this issue, remain current on the research, and weigh this decision now so that we can set a healthy school schedule for the next school year.