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.

We are not asking for a free education, but rather help with student loans that are crippling the American economy. Many Americans have lost their good paying jobs and forced to take jobs just to make ends meet, with no extra money to pay off the student loans. Lives and families are being ruined by student loans, people are becoming homeless, many have been harrassed so bad that they have commited suicide. I left a job that I had worked at for 12 years making $35.000 a year, I attended a school, you would call a 'diploma mill'. I graduated with $69,000 in student loan debt. Both Federal and Private Student loans. The school had jobs offers extended to me from cmpanies that were offering $8/hr, these jobs needed no degree, just a high school diploma. I later became 100% disabled, the loans went into default. The Federal loans can be medically discharged...maybe. The private loans cannot. Sallie Mae and its affiliates harrass you to no end and use unethical and abusive methods to collect money...any money that they can. I had a call just last week. I told them that I had $50 left and I needed groceries, reply, "I will take that $50 and apply it to your account." No mention of the fact that my and my family would go hungry. I close with this. I now have over $100,000 dollars in Student Loans. I am ruined, all because I wanted a better future for me and my family. My story is just one of millions out there whose lives and families are ruined thanks to student loans. Lets work together. IMPORTANT: In close, the fees, high interest and the fact that we could not meet the demands that Sallie Mae and any other institutes that service student loans have tacked on mountains of extra debt that compounds the problem, this is reported to your credit report for the rest of your life and beyond. Many of us in this economy, because of the lack of good paying jobs will never make enough money to satisfy these debts. Do you have a story to tell? Contact me at [email protected].

My son and his wife owe $340,000 in student loans! They are both employed as optometrists. They are currently repaying their student loans through the IBR plan. Their payments are managable under this plan, but their fear is the exorbitant tax they will have to pay when the loan is forgiven in 25 years. It may be up to $70,000. Currently the debt forgiven through PSLF is not considered taxable. We would like to give this privilege to borrowers who qualify for loan forgiveness through IBR (and Income Contingent Repayment) get the same treatment. After 300 payments, they should not be taxed!!!! It will likely be totally unaffordable.

My Cousin goes to Herbert Hoover Elementary School and I am concerned with the fact that he has been being severely bullied for the past month or so and the school refuses to do anything about it. They want him, the victim, to switch schools, or miss recess. The last time I checked the children doing the bullying are the ones who should be punished. They finally listened after he told them that he would kill himself. Even then all they did was call the crisis center. The bullies have not been spoken to. We believe that the schools actions are bullying in and of themselves. They told this 11 year old that his bullies would never find out if he would just tell the principal, all of this was witnessed by his aunt. When she left him at the school for the day the principal called both my cousin and the three bullies into his office and he called my cousin a liar because he wasn't brave enough to accuse the other children to their faces. They have him scared enough that he is having panic attacks and freaking out at the thought of going to school. Mr. Rodriquez stated to one of my family members that "He didn't know any other way to handle the situation." Even the superintendent told my cousins father there was nothing they could do. The policy from the Parent/Student handbook for Herbert Hoover is as follows: "BULLYING/CYBERBULLYING Effective April 23, 2008, the Neshaminy board of School Directors approved Policy 553 – Bullying/Cyberbullying. All forms of bullying and cyberbullying by District students are hereby prohibited. Anyone who engages in bullying or cyberbullying in violation of this policy shall be subject to appropriate discipline. This policy is in effect while student are on property within the jurisdiction of the District; while on school-owned and/or operated vehicles; while attending or engaged in school-sponsored activities; and while away from school grounds if the misconduct directly affects the health and safety of students and staff as well as the good order, efficient management and welfare of the District. Any student who retaliates against another student for reporting bullying or extortion or for assisting or testifying in the investigation or hearing may be subject to disciplinary action. Please refer to Policy 553 – Bullying/Cyberbullying for more detailed information." So many children and teens take their lives because they just can't take anymore. It is hard being different, it is hard to hear that you are fat, ugly, stupid, all day. And as we get older the insults get harsher. You medicate children instead of working on their problems. If he is jumping around too much he has ADHD, give him a pill. If he is having panic attacks, it's just anxiety, give him a pill. Pay attention people. How shallow do we have to be, how many lives do we have to lose, to see that bullying is an epidemic in the US and other countries as well. If we can put a stop to it now think of how many lives we can save.

My two children attend one of the best charter schools in California. The school recently delivered a 974 API, the second highest test score in the state. The Oakland School Board has begun the process of closing the school because it did not respond fast enough to a request for corrections after an audit. The school began work on the corrections and asked the School Board for an additional 30 days to finish the corrections. The school board said "no" to the request and instead initiated the school closure process. This decision will impact 1,200 families in Oakland. It will also deprive Oakland of 1,200 of the brightest students in the entire state of California, as measured by testing. Watch this 2 minute video made by the students, to see what's so special about this school: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMSHCht4qb4 note: You might have to cut and paste the link into your browser.

There are many people affected by huge student loan payments. Lowering the APR of the student loans would help alleviate the burden of repayment.