I am currently a sophomore in East Hampton High School, and in my second year playing varsity baseball for the school we have been demoralized on and off the field. We play teams that completely out-do us in every aspect of the game, but the worst part is that we must travel at least an hour and 15 minutes each way for every away game. It affects our grades, our sleep, our morale, and it just makes life harder. Clearly we are in the wrong league for our skill set and geographical placement. We need to be moved to a league closer to East Hampton where we can be more competitive. Please forward this message to everyone who might support our team.

Under the proposed requirements, a child who has an excellent overall GPA and has met all course requirements to graduate runs the risk of not receiving a diploma simply because s/he does not do well on a single standardized test. The undersigned parents urge the Haddonfield BOE to issue a resolution that opposes the proposed graduation requirements in favor of one that offers multiple pathways to a diploma and recognizes the need to validate the efficacy of the PARCC over a multi-year period before considering its use as an exit exam. For more on BOE resolutions related to the proposed requirements, go here: http://bit.ly/1WPnMwB

Rosemary Larkin is in her fourth year as principal of New Hingham Regional Elementary. I believe that her poor performance is having significant negative impacts on the quality of education our children are receiving, and the environment in which they are being educated. Her failed leadership not only has direct negative consequences to our children, but also impacts the communities in which we live.

I have personally witnessed the gradual erosion of funding for inner-city schools due to slick marketing campaigns from nearby "public" charter schools. These schools often participate in the practice known as "creaming." Charter schools routinely remove low-performing students, English language learners, and students with disabilities who might make their data appear less than marketable. The public schools are then left to educate these students once they are removed from local charter schools. The marketing campaigns have resulted in a loss of student population in public schools, and thus a loss of funds necessary to operate needed programs. This system, already declared unconstitutional in Washington state, has resulted in a two-tier system effectively reintroducing educational segregation. Separate but equal funding is inherently unequal. Outlaw these predatory charters. "Public" charter schools are the For-Profit Schools of K-12 education. Don't line the pockets of investors with my tax dollars!

My son, who is autistic, attended Mountain Valley Elementary School, not because this was his home campus, but because CISD made the choice that all children requiring special needs attend this school. In the nearly 3 years he attended, he regressed in all aspects of his disorder as well as his education due to a lack of placement. They have decided it is appropriate to place autistic children in a behavior unit with staff who are not trained on their disorder. Autistic children do not have behavior issues, they have sensory triggers due to their disability! We need to take care of all of the children in the community, and there should be a program to support Autism in our county, and give our children their best chance at succeeding at everything they encounter in life!

We, the parents of BPS students, are deeply disturbed by the remarks made by Paul Grogan, the President of the Boston Foundation, in the Boston Globe on April the 3rd. “..if there’s some pain and suffering to existing institutions because they haven’t been able to be effective, there’s going to have to be consequences to that, just as there is in the private sector,” Paul Grogan, Boston Globe, April 2, 2016. The Boston Foundation has an oversized influence on policy in the Boston area due to its financial resources. We don’t believe the Boston Foundation should be creating policy by promising financial relief to our chronically underfunded schools. It is our wish that the Foundation have some understanding and empathy on the effect that the policies they promote have on our children. It is our children who have been entrusted to the Boston Public Schools, and therefore, they experience the pain and suffering Mr. Grogan so casually writes off. Fifty-seven thousand children attend Boston Public Schools, and we do not believe that our children’s education should be dismissed so easily. Boston Public Schools is the oldest public school system in the country. Academically, BPS is very strong. The 4th and 8th graders in BPS exceeded the national average for all public schools on the National Assessment and Educational Progress (NAEP). BPS is the only urban school to do so. Our graduation rates are the highest they have ever been and we are making strides to close the achievement gap in Boston. But more than test scores or prizes, BPS is where our children have found a place to learn, grow, create and discover. It is where our children sounded out their first words when learning to read, observed caterpillars change into butterflies, plunked keys on the piano, learned to share, and think. Boston Public Schools takes in all children regardless of income, ability, race, social, economic or immigration status and forms them into bright, curious scholars. So it is highly discouraging that the philanthropic community would give so little regard to the school system where our children go to school every day. We believe that philanthropy that has no concern for the effects its actions have on its intended beneficiaries is a destructive philanthropy and worse than no help at all. We are asking Mr. Grogan to develop as a compassionate learner and grow in empathy and humility.

I am a military spouse and mother of a child who is affected by Sensory Processing Disorder. As a family we struggle with everyday life tasks and we struggle to have her medical expenses covered because her primary care manager does not recognize sensory processing disorder. We struggle to have the school recognize that she is not just a bad child and that there is a real problem since it is difficult to get this placed in her medical record. This has been researched since the 1950's and 1960's and should no longer remain in the dark. Too many children, teens, and adults deal with this daily struggle of overloaded senses. Our federal law, Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA 04), defines a specific learning disability as “a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, that may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations.” While SPD may affect the child’s auditory, visual, and motor skills and his/her ability to process and sequence information, it is not, at present, specifically identified as an eligible, qualifying disability. Thus, it does not necessarily make a child eligible for special education and related services, such as occupational, physical, or speech/language therapy. Help me spread the message and get health coverage for this disorder.

The voters of Arizona have already approved, by initiative, the funding of the Arizona schools by billions of dollars more than the State Government has provided. The Arizona Supreme Court has already found, by a 5-0 ruling, that the State must correct this under-funding. Prop 123 reverses the voter initiative that approved this funding of the schools and sells off 3.5 billions of dollars of State Trust lands. This will permanently cost the schools $100 million in revenue every single year in the future at a time when the State government has hundreds of millions in surpluses that they plan to give away in tax breaks to their wealthy donors.

The Strafford School Board should focus on finding a common ground with our teachers. Once an agreement has been reached, the townspeople will have an opportunity to vote for or against the agreement, but in the interest of continuing to bargain in good faith, the negotiation process should remain confidential.

Governor Bevin just ordered immediate cuts to postsecondary education in Kentucky by 4.5 percent, and he wants to increase the cuts to 9 percent during the next budget. Budget negotiations between the Kentucky House and Senate have broken down over the issue of funding universities and state pension programs. Bevin's cuts would come at the expense of students. Let's tell the Governor and General Assembly that we can't afford to sell out Kentucky's future!

The community wants to open a charter school in Huntington Beach.

WE HAVE 14 DAYS TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE, because, over the next 14 days, Mayor Bill de Blasio will be considering important reforms to school discipline and policies and policing practices in NYC Public Schools. The stories are incredible: * A Queens first grader with learning disabilities was handcuffed by police and suspended from school when he became upset while painting an Easter egg in class. *Alexa Gonzalez, a 12-year-old Queens girl, was suspended from school and hauled off in handcuffs for doodling her name on her desk in erasable marker. The facts are outrageous: *Black students are 4 times more likely to be suspended than their white peers. Black girls are 10 times more likely than white girls to receive discipline referrals. These racial disparities are a result of systemic implicit and explicit biases in policies and practices. * Students with disabilities are four times more likely to be suspended than students without disabilities. Black students with disabilities represent more than 50 percent of suspended students with disabilities. Black students also served longer suspensions on average and were more likely to be suspended for subjective misconduct like insubordination. New York City schools imposed nearly 70,000 suspensions in the 2011-2012 school year and a task force examined disciplinary practices in the New York City’s 1.1 million-student system during the 2011-2012 school year. It found that “the overwhelming majority of school-related suspensions, summonses and arrests are for minor misbehavior, behavior that occurs on a daily basis in most schools.” This excessive use of suspension for minor offenses pushes students out of school and directly on the path towards prison. Urge the Mayor to adopt changes that will dismantle the school to prison pipeline now!