We, the alumni of Science High and Science Park High Schools, with invested community members are proud of the tradition of excellence established by us with the guidance and leadership of extraordinary principals – Morris Lerner, Patrick Ristano, Christine Taylor and Lamont Thomas among them. The School Leadership Council (SLC) is well familiar with our school’s heritage, traditions and values. We, therefore, support the mission of its Leadership Search Committee to help select the next principal for Science Park. We understand that the search committee arrived at a unanimous recommendation bringing well qualified candidates to the final interview stage. We further understand that a second committee, selected and trained by your Talent Department, also arrived at a unanimous decision creating high expectations for a successful conclusion. Given the clear and decisive outcome presented to you, Mr. Cerf, we urge you to bring the stalled leadership search process to a final decision, which honors the thorough and inclusive work begun by our Science Park SLC almost a year ago.

An Open Letter to the Members of the Board of Education for the Chappaqua Central School District, We are the parents, relatives, and friends of children with dyslexia who attend school in Chappaqua. These children deserve the same access to all that the Chappaqua Central School District has to offer. However, many of these children aren’t provided with evidence-based instruction. The International Dyslexia Association and National Institutes of Child Health & Human Development define dyslexia as a specific learning disability that is neurological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition along with poor spelling and decoding abilities. According to the Yale Center for Dyslexia & Creativity, one in five people has dyslexia. It is the most common learning disability crossing racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic lines. Chappaqua Schools have historically been at the forefront of educational advancement. We call upon the Board to continue to honor this commitment and extend its proactive tradition by specifically addressing the needs of children with dyslexia. We respectfully ask the Board to require schools under its control to: 1. Accurately identify students with dyslexia, a reading disorder, not a reading delay; 2. Use the word dyslexia or reading disorder so that evidence-based instruction and intervention can be provided; 3. Provide a written plan of action specifying evidence-based intervention, frequency, and measurable objectives for all students with dyslexia; and 4. Train at least one reading specialist and one special educator in each of the schools in an Orton Gillingham program (for e.g. PAF - preventing academic failure). These modifications require minimal funding. Moreover, since many children with dyslexia receive services, the modifications ensure effective use of the funds already allocated. We look forward to working together so that children with dyslexia thrive in the Chappaqua schools. Signed,

Graduates from Iowa's public universities already face an alarming amount of debt at current tuition levels.  For example, in the 2014 school year the average graduate from Iowa State University faced a whopping $28,880 of student debt according to the Des Moines Register and The Institute for College Access & Success. The Board of Regents has announced that they are planning to raise tuition even higher forcing students to face higher levels of debt and further disenfranchising those without the resources to attend college. It is time to find other solutions to the budget issue, and stop forcing students to bear the cost while our institutions of learning are transformed into 5-star resorts.

There are already enough bullies in the lunchroom. Now some members of the U.S. House are effectively trying to take our kids' lunch money—by putting forward a bill that guts school lunch programs. An ill-advised update to the Child Nutrition Act came out late last month that jeopardizes free and reduced school lunch for millions of children. This legislation is moving quickly, and we need to stop the provisions that could lead to empty stomachs from coast to coast. Taking away kids' school lunches is being hailed as the fiscally responsible thing to do, even when we know the opposite is true. When students are hungry they can't learn. Providing lunch to children whose families are struggling with food insecurity is a simple investment to make sure that those children are learning. It's just common sense. The House Child Nutrition Re-authorization Bill includes sneaky provisions that would gut the school lunch program -- and would roll back years of progress. [1] If passed, more than 7,000 schools would have their school lunch eligibility revoked. And those more than 7,000 schools? They serve more than 3 million kids [2] Help us stop this bill by telling your representative to stand up for hungry kids. [1] http://goo.gl/I85mAI [2] http://goo.gl/YU5Z7I

Most Americans are affected by K-12 Ed policies either as parents, students, teachers, administrators, or teacher educators. We now have evidence that testing companies (Pearson and PARCC) have been rigging tests to fail our children. The children, teachers, and parents of America desperately need and demand transparency for the big testing companies that are controlling K-12 education and failing our schools! It is one thing to hold teachers and schools accountable, but the measuring tool matters as much as the measurement. There are no excuses for tests that are not aligned to the standards they claim to be assessing.

The Governor of Georgia is proposing to change the constitution of Georgia to allow the state to control and takeover schools in high minority and improvished areas. If this law passes it will allow resegregation of these schools by putting them into one district and labeling them all as failing

The assertion that people from different races do not possess equal music ability is inaccurate, extremely offensive and counter to the values we as music teachers and music teacher educators hold most dear. We would like to see the government create a task force to address diversity in music education that will construct a list of timely, actionable, constructive goals for addressing issues of inclusion in the music education profession.

We have applied to charter our proposed school for 5 years. The State keeps turning us down. Why?!

A group of volunteers with no political affiliations organized as Williamson Strong to monitor and be advocates for good schools. They are being persecuted and fined in a tragically unfair, politically motivated action by the Tennessee Registry Office to classify them incorrectly as a PAC. Please investigate the matter to protect these good people, our schools and the very integrity of the TN Registry Office. If this interpretation is allowed, no group that speaks against an issue or politician will be permitted without creating a PAC.

At 4:30 a.m. on Thursday, May 5, the Michigan House of Representatives passed a package of right-wing bills to punish teachers and students in Detroit. Gov. Rick Snyder must veto it. Make no mistake: These bills discriminate against Detroit’s children—who are overwhelmingly economically disadvantaged children and children of color—and are designed explicitly to punish teachers who speak up on behalf of their students and themselves. Many of the so-called teacher-related provisions have failed and been rejected when used in other jurisdictions. Under state-controlled emergency management, indifferent politicians abandoned Detroit’s students to learn in under-resourced schools with deplorable conditions. The state created half a billion dollars in debt for the school district, and the House bills, which only affect Detroit and not the rest of Michigan, don’t solve the state-created debt crisis. Instead, this legislation creates a new district with a litany of bad education policies, strips teachers of their rights and voice, and leaves Detroit’s students in an even more vulnerable situation. Under the House proposal, school employees—including teachers, clerical staff and support staff—are stripped of their existing contracts and benefits, and the district will no longer recognize their unions. The bill will punish teachers for going on strike or participating in walkouts over school conditions—even if the school is unsafe for students and staff to be in. The bills would also allow the district to hire noncertified teachers and tie teacher pay to student test scores, even though research clearly shows those types of merit pay systems do not work. This package of bills only applies to Detroit. Why are Michigan House Republicans punishing Detroit for the debt their emergency manager created? Why are they stripping rights and imposing bad education policies in Detroit, but not expecting their home districts to do the same? The answer is simple: They don’t think they’ll have to answer for what they’re doing. Gov. Snyder must veto any version of the House bills that comes to his desk. The children and people of Detroit are counting on him to stop these reckless legislators from hurting them.

I think the rise of Donald Trump is evidence enough that the educational standards of this country have sunk well below acceptable. They need to be supreme.

As an objective observer, it's plain to see that Detroit school children and their education are continually place in jeopardy because the state of Michigan regards them as little more than expendable pawns in a political chess game. No child's education--and by extension, their lives--should ever be so easy to play with.