The State of Texas already lags behind the majority of other states when it comes to graduation rates, test scores, and producing an educated workforce. But the Governor of Texas has chosen to focus energy on his pet causes such as making abortions more difficult to obtain and targeting Hispanic citizens with his "Sanctuary Cities" legislation. The Governor instead puts the burden on local communities by suggesting additional taxes and lay-offs. State Senator Wendy Davis took a stand on the last day of the 2011 legislative session by filibuster and prevented the budget bill from passing before the midnight deadline. Instead of taking the opportunity to allow for more public discussion and input, the Governor has chosen to attack Senator Davis with name-calling and threatening tactics. Please send a message to the Governor that you support any legislator's decision to focus time and discussion on education funding, and that we want him to refrain from public attacks and begin the process of building our education system back up to proper levels of funding and include Texas citizens in on that plan.

Most talk radio stations in the US are dedicated to partisan politics and pro corporate propaganda. On most, only a small percentage of their prime time broadcasting includes non-partisan programing including state and local sports, weather, and traffic. 
By broadcasting athletics on these stations our universities endorse and give community credibility and acceptability to talk stars like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Michael Savage, and significantly increase their local ad revenues. Most national talkers are protected by call screeners from challenge and correction. There is evidence of regular participation by paid callers. 
Long term attacks by these and other national and local talkers directed at teachers, unions, global warming science, as well as coordinated political disinformation and direct and inferred racism, sexism, and hate mongering, make radio stations that broadcast them unacceptable partners for American institutions of higher learning, as well as their students and faculty. Please feel free to adapt this petition to your university or college.

We are tired of Arne Duncan selling out American Students! In its final “Gainful Employment” rule, Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education, has made many major concessions to the for-profit higher education industry. Now, Duncan has significantly delayed the point at which the worst for-profit school programs would lose federal financial aid. By doing so, they have made it many times easier for career college lobbyists to kill the regulation before the Department of Education can shut down even the most irredeemable programs.

A Private school that supports girls who are troubled and missed placed; supports Girls with low to no income who live in a high poverty level neighborhoods who depend on QUALITY EDUCATION...A school who has a high graduation rate is being shut down!

Children are being hit & killed by vehicles while waiting for buses and walking to school in the pitch-black mornings of our geographically incorrect Eastern Time Zone. These incidents (along with rapes & abductions) have increased dramatically since 2006, when our legislature finally put Indiana on Daylight Saving Time without taking the logical accompanying step of returning us to our historically (and geographically) correct time zone. The Central Time Coalition hopes to request the DOT finally hold the series of statewide time zone hearings promised us in 2005, but which were never held due to a "technicality."

Most of the tests students routinely take to test their progress are hardly a valid indicator of what we should be measuring: the capacity to think critically in order to be prepared to solve the many complex issues we are facing. Our populace confuses beliefs with facts, scientific knowledge with superstition, etc. Teaching to success on tests narrows the curriculum and that will be even worse once teachers' jobs are keyed to their students' ability to take tests.

Mayor Bloomberg proposes to cut $350 million directly from the classroom by removing 6,000 teachers from our schools through attrition and layoffs. In addition, the Mayor is proposing $79 million in cuts to early childhood education and $34 million in cuts to community-based after school programs. This would mean cuts to all schools and would lead to the sharpest rises in class size in over thirty years. There are clear alternatives Arts, music, performing arts, physical education, career and technical education, libraries and intervention services would also be hard hit. The Mayor's budget represents a major step backwards in New York's commitment to quality education and is morally unconscionable. We are calling on Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council to invest in school improvement, not cut programs, increase class sizes or take teachers out of the classroom.

Governor Bob McDonnell will be giving the spring commencement address at VCU's graduation ceremony on May 21. This news comes less than three months after over 1,000 students rallied to protest the Governor and Attorney General's attempt to negate anti-discrimination policies that protect gays.

Student loans are well known by Americans as an excellent way to provide for those who would otherwise not be able to afford college. In 2008, the banking industry petitioned to remove all basic consumer protections for these private loans, and won. Student loans have since surpassed the National Credit Card Debt, and this occurred due to of the lack of basic consumer protections. The ability to apply for bankruptcy if there is a need is a basic right all other forms of loans currently possess. We are calling our Senate and House representatives to reinstate the basic protections on Private Student Loans that have been overlooked for much too long.

Our nation's public school funding, structure, and methods are stuck in 19th Century economics. If we are to compete economically as a nation, we must convert to a science-focused system and curriculum NOW. This is eloquently elaborated by Dr. Michio Kaku in a 4 minute video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xke_ddc2C8s

Despite a $600 million surplus in the state's School Aid Fund, Republicans have voted to decrease funding to K-12 by a total of over $700 per pupil to pay for an 86% tax break to businesses. It is an indirect assault on the Teachers' Union and other public employee unions done in the most cynical way -- by making children pay.

Washington State's proposed budget will slash 1.6 to 1.8 billion dollars from education. Schools will close, classes will get larger, programs will be cut, teachers will lose their jobs, recruiting high quality teachers will be even more difficult, and students will not receive the education they need to compete in today's market place. As schools and education deteriorates, our communities will as well. There are no plans to restore these cuts once they are in place. Washington students will suffer for years. We are denying our children their future, and our communities will suffer even more.