Overemphasis on Florida state sanctioned standardized testing has resulted in the documented retardation of the intellectual, creative, and social growth of a significant portion of Florida’s K-12 public school student population, has resulted in the discriminatory disenfranchisement of Florida’s minority students, second language students, and its special needs students; and has unfairly maligned Florida’s K-12 public school educators by attaching test scores to pay and job security.

In the August debt deal, we are proud that Democrats found a way to help save the Pell Grant program, which helps many low-income students afford a college education. However, we are ashamed that Republicans forced cuts to graduate education loans in order to pay for the Pell Grant program. We ask that you stop the attacks on education by Republicans, and help restore the funding for the graduate education loans, while preserving the Pell Grant program. Students know that deficit spending is a problem. But how can a political party oppose ending tax subsides for corporations and the wealthy, and then have no problem ending subsidies for student loans? At a time when corporations are seeing record profits and students are seeing record debt, we ask that the government places the burden on those with record profits, not record debt. Your position on the super committee gives you the chance to fix this clear injustice, and we ask you to do so.

Pennsylvania faced a tough budget situation, and college students understand that everyone needs to do their part. However, students are all too aware of debt. Student debt in this country is at a record high. There are many opportunities to make up Pennsylvania's debt without forcing more debt on students. While gas drillers risk our environment, you refuse to consider a severance tax or impact fee that could help pay for the environmental costs of drilling as well as funding other vital programs like higher education. Despite the dire predictions and calls for fiscal responsibility, Pennsylvania ended the fiscal year with a surplus of around $700 million. The total cuts to the entire higher education system were around $250 million. By using less than half of the surplus Pennsylvania could have preserved it’s higher education funding. Furthermore, you passed a tax cut for businesses that would cost at least $200 million and could cost up to $800 million. In addition, your budget increases funding for prisons by over $150 million. These ideas are just a few of the many options you can take to restore funding to the higher education system in Pennsylvania.

Many schools in the region of North Florida and the public school systems in rural counties like Jefferson and Taylor do not have any art instruction and have almost completely canceled all music instruction from choir to band practice. During the upcoming legislative session, let's send this petition to the legislature and the governor to let them know how we feel and to insist on funding for art and music instruction in our schools.

Stock market crash? No problem. Banks are making big money from the buying and selling of graduate student loans...arguably the most reliable, highest returning investment in the United States at this moment. While interest rates for savings accounts, mortgages, undergraduate student loans, and virtually everything else in the United States have dropped to all-time lows, freshly-minted graduates of Master's and Doctoral programs--our country's potential future leaders--are being crippled by an average of 8% APR on top of hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt. We need to lower the interest rates and give our recent graduates a chance to get off the ground!

The inaccurate concept of multiple Races no longer is supported by scientific fact. Continuing to divide people into separate Races, as opposed to Ethnicities, perpetuates Racism. To expedite global unification, people need to be exposed to education and knowledge that demonstrates how each of us belongs to the same Human Family Tree and One Human Race, regardless of ethnicity, as proven by mitochondrial DNA genetic research, and human migration research over the past 24 years.

Senator Phil Pavlov (R) of St. Clair County, chair of Rick Snyder's Education Committee, is drafting legislation that would privatize instruction in Michigan Public Schools. This fundamental change in the method of staffing Michigan's public schools would do monumental damage to the quality of education in Michigan. We are calling on Governor Snyder to say "no" to privatizing teaching in Michigan.

Recently the School District of Philadelphia "released" the current Superintendent. A part of her departure package included $405,000 contributed by 'anonymous donors'. One of the controversies surrounding the ex-Super's tenure was the awarding of contracts to various suppliers and contractors. This "hidden buyout" process has created the condition where individuals with a financial interest in the operation of the district could have undue or undisclosed influence on how the district is operated.

Charter schools show less progress than many public schools, some even lower than public schools. Stop the No Child Left Behind with its impossible goals and bogus tests. Teach kids how to think critically, not what to think. Stop making teachers the scapegoat for bogus test results. Fully fund public education with taxpayer dollars instead of handing it over to private companies whose record is poor.

Student loan Reform would first automatically grant a two year retroactive payment freeze extension on all existing student loans. All interest would be eliminated on all student loans permanently. Giving students and their families time to find work and relief from fees that border on usury. With unemployment and low pay it is key to help graduates now. Continuing new and fair student loan reforms would be a huge benefit to the economy overall.

The mission for Mosaic School of the Arts School, Inc. is to educate life-long learners and productive citizens to succeed in college and their prospective fields to create a better global society. Our goal is to address the intuitive nature of the whole child by satisfying the human desire to create, interpret, understand, express and enjoy learning and discovering by engaging students academically and fostering critical thinking skills. The school will boast an International Baccalaureate curriculum with a visual and fine arts magnet program. Our vision is to create a community of learners. For more information, go to our website www.mosaicschools.org.

President Stanley's strategic initiative, Project 50 Forward, aims to position Stony Brook University as one of the top 20 public research universities in the country. The steering committee for this project will imminently implement shared service centers, meaning that the administrative staff will be removed from their home departments and localized into a general pool that services the building instead of its students. Not only do the data overwhelmingly demonstrate that this corporate strategy rarely, if ever, saves as much money as it costs to implement, but such a process is plagued with transitional woes that put a stop to efficient work. Ultimately, shared service centers result in a loss of services to the client or customer (e.g., the students paying tuition). In a year where student tuition and fees are rising and will continue to rise over the next academic year, Stony Brook University is proposing a plan that will drastically alter the support, services and specialized advising available to its students. Please sign the petition and help stop the shared services centers at Stony Brook University.