About the loss of k-12 funding in this state

The Michigan Legislature with its Emergency Manager Mandate, is in the process of turning our public school system into a privately owned education system, kind of like our current Health Care System. It sounds good at first, but the reality, if we give in to this now, is that soon we will have no say on who is teaching our children or what they are learning. Our taxes are already being diverted to these (some out-of-state) "schools". We have no jurisdiction over a corporation. There has already been talk of doing away with actual school buildings and making the curriculum entirely online. Sign this petition to Governor Rick Snyder telling him we want our taxes to stay with our PUBLIC SCHOOLS. We want to keep our school boards and teachers. We welcome free enterprise corporate controlled schools, but not with our tax dollars, and not as a Government mandate.

Our local Maine neighbor's are urging their state legislature to increase school funding. State aid accounts for nearly half of K-12 education funding, yet Maine has reduced that funding by $468 per student since 2008. Please sign our petition to make our local government understand that we wont take this injustice.

My two sons attend Lowel Elementary School, and I'm concerned that Lowel is about to lose 10 teachers, our only librarian, and all financial support for popular activities. And stop the terrible funding cuts to Lowel School.

Michigan K-12 Schools depend on state funding for 50% of their yearly budgets.Yet, that funding has been cut by more than $500 per student since 2008 while expenses continue to increase. Please sign the petition demanding an increase in school funding for our children.

The Idaho State Legislature continues to cut education funds. Our schools need this funding for a number of things to give them the best education possible. Our children should be our first priority!

On Sunday, the Chicago Teachers Union announced the first Chicago teacher's strike in almost 25 years. They are fighting against school privatization, closures, and stagnant wages. Ninety-eight of our Chicago schools don't have playgrounds, and 160 schools don't have libraries at all. Forty percent of our schools do not have full time art and music programs, and the entire system is desperately lacking support staff, including counselors and school nurses. The lack of investment in schools is bad for teachers—but it's devastating for our children. As the parent of two children in the Chicago Public Schools, I stand with the Chicago public school teachers. As the teachers are out striking the parents are not we will stand with our children at home studying for hours every day till this nightmare ends and our kids are back in class.

It is time to end inequity in Public Schools. Any child should be allowed to enroll in any public school they have transportation options to and from, regardless of school district, county or state lines.

The new national curriculum is a burden that is wreaking havoc in American public school classrooms. Teachers are being bullied everyday by administrators, legislators and business executives who have no experience in the field of education. Companies like Bain and Walmart are influencing the passing of dangerous laws that restrict the rights and freedom of teachers , and people like Bill Gates are influencing educational policy. Academics have been pushed to the side in favor of technology and testing. In addition, the national curriculum, the child of Bush's No Child Left Behind is further eroding real teaching. Data is now driving instruction and technology use in the classroom is being forced upon students and teachers, although even the American Pediatric Association recognizes the dangers of excessive screen use and recommends no more than two hours of screen time per day. Education is NOT a BUSINESS and should not be run like one. Children and teachers are individuals and this one size, robo-teacher concept is nothing short of frightening. Actual teacher centered classrooms are no longer allowed, and teachers, experienced ones in particular, are being threatened and bullied in classrooms across the country everyday. That teachers have been maligned and demonized in the last several years is sad, but what we are doing to our children is even more so. Public school children, especially minority and poor ones, are being left further and further behind everyday. Please, repeal the national curriculum and kick businesses out of the educational policy debate. Give teachers back their ability to teach. Our futures and those of our children depend upon this. And, please, talk to teachers before making wide sweeping changes in education. I would not know how to do your job, could you do mine? Tomorrow I will go to school and teach King Lear, The Grapes of Wrath and The Great Gatsby to my junior and senior classes. And as I do, I will be thinking in the back of my mind that I could be caught doing so by an administrator. But the fear of what we are doing to our children is stronger even than the fear of reprisal. So I will continue to teach, everyday, until I am allowed to do so openly once again, or until I am let go which becomes a greater and greater possibility with each new law passed.

Wyomissing Area teachers are starting their second year without a contract and have had their salaries frozen for many months. In spite of this the Wyomissing Area Jr.-Senior High School was ranked the fifth best high school in Pennsylvania by U.S. News and World Report and all buildings have received numerous other accolades. They deserve to be treated fairly and with respect by the school board.

Bring back vocational programs into high schools. Help create apprenticeships that coordinate with trade unions to bring industry back to America.

Our teachers are under attack. Chicago's teachers have been fighting to save school libraries, art and music education and, funding so students can learn in classrooms with air-conditioning. When Chicago Public Schools CEO J.C. Brizard refused to compromise, Chicago's Teachers Union voted to strike to save public schools. Now anti-union special interests are attacking the Chicago teachers union claiming greed and self interest. Save our schools, stand with Chicago Teachers today!