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.

Our future, Our children. One and the same.

There is a cancer growing on the students of America. This cancer is so malicious and resolute that it keeps millions of Americans impoverished for the rest of their lives. The cancer, of which we speak, is the aggressive collection practices used by student loan lenders (mostly the US Department of Education) against borrowers incapable of repaying their loans.

The Light of the World Trust has initiated a campaign to persuade broadcasting program makers and program controllers to redress the balance by including intelligent design/creation in their programs and live debates. In order to persuade broadcasting officials that fair play and not prejudice is what we want and have a right to expect, we hope to collect as much support as we possibly can and then to put our case forward in front of the media bosses and program controllers.

The Aliquippa School District faces an insurmountable task to meet Adequate Yearly Progress. The challenge is great, but can be attained with much support. A way to demonstrate such support is through the members of the community addressing the need for a charter school in our district so that stakeholders have a choice and together we can raise the student success rate.

As concerned parents of the Conejo Valley Unified School District, we are writing to enlist your support in cultivating a healthier environment for our children. 72% of the US population is overweight or obese with one in three children overweight or obese. Obesity is the leading cause of death in America after smoking. Unless measures are taken to reduce obesity and improve the health of youth today many may live shorter lives than their parents for the first time ever. The Centers for Disease Control have stated: "Schools may have an ethical obligation to act in response to the precipitous increase in the incidence of obesity among children. Because children are required to spend half their waking hours in school and because they consume a substantial portion of their daily food there, school is a logical focus for efforts to encourage healthy dietary behaviors to prevent obesity and its consequent individual and collective costs...Opponents of school food regulation argue that people have the right to choose the foods they eat. However, we structure and regulate many student activities in the school setting and do not consider doing so an abridgment of children’s rights....For example, parents would rarely serve candy alongside vegetables on the dinner table and expect their children to choose the vegetables instead of the candy. Similarly, school authorities are responsible for offering foods from which the child can select but limiting choices to those that provide nutritional benefit rather than harm." Currently the majority of the food served in the CVUSD cafeterias is processed, re-heated meals which are high in sodium, preservatives, additives, and low in fresh vegetables, fresh fruits, freshly cooked meats, whole grains/pastas, etc. We want to have the staff of CVUSD kitchens to be trained in ‘scratch cooking’ and for fresh food to be purchased and prepared for school lunches (elementary, middle and high school). This approach has been successful at many local school districts (Oak Park USD, Ventura USD, Santa Barbara, and Carpentaria). We want our kids to eat healthy, freshly cooked meals instead of meals consisting of mostly processed food. While salad bars have been utilized in many Conejo Schools it does not undo the damage to our children being served a diet of mostly processed foods. Intervention is needed and we recognize the cost to staff training, which we parents will look to local donations to pay providing the district, cannot find funding for the project at this time. We want the district food service to agree that if training of staff can be funded, that they will in turn agree to fully support the scratch cooking project (buy fresh food, raw commodity foods, and assist and support staff in being adequately trained to produce more healthy meals). We would like outside, professional consultants to assist in menu development, training, and implementation of the new program that will meet the new recommendation put forth by the USDA School lunch program. Please see the other petitions involving healthy changes for CVUSD: http://www.parentsforhealthyschoollunch.com/sign_the_petitions_.html

The modern metric system is easier and more modern than our current system of weights and measures (The English System.) The United States is the only country besides Burma that doesn't use the International System. Metrification will improve our ability to communicate more clearly with the rest of the world. It is necessary to improve our standings in math and science.

Per the California State Law, as of July 1 2011 free drinking water is to be provided during lunch time in food service areas to all children in California Public Schools with the mission to increase ‘water consumption and decrease sugar-sweetened beverage consumption as a strategy to support obesity prevention and improved long-term health’ (Calif. Dept of Education).    In order to promote water consumption the California Dept of Ed suggests: 1.    Provide or Plan for Chilled/Filtered Drinking Stations 1. Provide Water Dispensers in the Cafeteria/Food Service Area 2. Maintain School Site Water Fountains As of now the Conejo Valley food services department and district have stated that the water fountains already at schools are sufficient to meet the guidelines of the law.  Since children are not allowed to get up from lunch tables freely to consume water, and there are many children at lunch trying to access water fountains all at once, and many fountains are not located where food is served we concerned CVUSD parents want hydration stations set up in all elementary, middle and high school cafeterias during lunch with enough cold water and cups to service all students.

As concerned parents of the Conejo Valley Unified School District, we are writing to enlist your support in cultivating a healthier environment for our children. One in four children in the US is obese, and two of every three adults in the US are obese. Obesity is the leading cause of death in America after smoking. Unless measures are taken to reduce obesity, the youth of today may live shorter lives than their parents. For this reason as parents we feel that Conejo Valley USD school lunches should offer desserts (brownies, cupcakes, cookies, etc) one time per week instead of every day. These desserts should also not contain artificial colors or high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Fresh fruit, yogurt, rice, pasta salads and other sides can be offered as alternatives the other four days of the school week. Please see the other petitions involving healthy changes for CVUSD: http://www.parentsforhealthyschoollunch.com/sign_the_petitions_.html

As concerned parents of the Conejo Valley Unified School District, we are writing to enlist your support in cultivating a healthier environment for our children. One in four children in the US is obese, and two of every three adults in the US are obese. Obesity is the leading cause of death in America after smoking. Unless measures are taken to reduce obesity, the youth of today may live shorter lives than their parents. The Centers for Disease Control have stated: "Schools may have an ethical obligation to act in response to the precipitous increase in the incidence of obesity among children. Because children are required to spend half their waking hours in school and because they consume a substantial portion of their daily food there, school is a logical focus for efforts to encourage healthy dietary behaviors to prevent obesity and its consequent individual and collective costs...Opponents of school food regulation argue that people have the right to choose the foods they eat. However, we structure and regulate many student activities in the school setting and do not consider doing so an abridgment of children’s rights....For example, parents would rarely serve candy alongside vegetables on the dinner table and expect their children to choose the vegetables instead of the candy. Similarly, school authorities are responsible for offering foods from which the child can select but limiting choices to those that provide nutritional benefit rather than harm." For these reasons as parents we feel that highly processed snack food/junk food/competitive foods/candy such as Doritos, Cheetos, Pop-Tarts, etc. should not be sold on school campuses (cafeterias, vending machines, student stores, etc). More freshly cut fruits and vegetables, and less processed snacks that do not contain high fructose corn syrup, artificial colors, artificial flavors, trans fat (trans fatty acid) and preferably contain less than 4 grams of added sugar per serving should be offered instead. Please see the other petitions involving healthy changes for CVUSD: http://www.parentsforhealthyschoollunch.com/sign_the_petitions_.html