The music and arts educational programs are of very important cultural significance! Every child should have the opportunity to bring forth the song in their soul, the skill in their minds and their hands, and the passion in their heart! http://www.ijreview.com/2015/06/336560-atlanta-cut-kids-music-education-schools-new-superintendant/?source=FBshare

Act 31 of 1983 ended our state's 50% reimbursement guarantee of local school funding. Every year since has seen a reduction of state funds going to local school districts. Currently, Pennsylvania only funds 36% of local education expenditures--ranking near the bottom as 45th in the nation for low state funding. The Pennsylvania legislature has shifted the burden of financing PreK-12 education onto local property owners. The local property owners in Pennsylvania, people like you and me, pay over 45% of education costs compared to an average of just 29% in other states. The Pennsylvania legislature, since 1999, has also failed to fund $29 BILLION in pension obligations while local school districts and school employees have continuously made the required contributions. Now the legislature is trying to shift the burden of these unfunded obligations onto the local taxpayers. This is unacceptable. New funding sources need to be accessed to rectify this issue. We believe that the Costing Out Study of 2006 was a move in the right direction toward adequacy because it determined the base cost of educating a student to meet state education standards. And now that the state is the prime determiner of educational adequacy, they should be the prime funder of education. We believe that the Funding Formula of 2008-2011 was a step in the right direction for allocating funds to School Districts with equity. It would make sense for the state to continue in that route by developing a method for FAIRLY allocating funds to districts based on an equalized local effort and not on the lop-sided local spending formulas and political vote-swapping in use today.

Motorcycles have poor cooling and create a lot of heat. Motorcyclist wear a lot of extra gear and do not have A/C like cars do. The potential for a heat stroke in the summer months is there. Also this will improve safety as motorcycles won't have to lane split illegally. It will improve the flow of traffic. Safety being that it is used in high congestion times of traffic and cyclist only go no more than 10-20MPH of the current speed of traffic and no more than 45 MPH in such cases they should use the existing lane. It will also promote new riders and possibly promote more fuel efficient travel to and from work during commuting hours.

In 2013, a sit-in at the Center for Care and Discovery ended with the violent arrest of four Trauma Center Coalition protesters, one of them a graduate student. Now, nine protesters are being arrested while advocating for trauma care. Glass was shattered in their faces, and they were forcibly removed from a University building. The lack of a Level I Adult trauma center on the South Side of Chicago is a disgrace. City officials, the Illinois Department of Public Health, and doctors from across the city agree that the facility is desperately needed, and yet, the University of Chicago Medical Center (UCMC), “at the forefront of medicine” refuses to address the Trauma Center Campaign -- a community demand now more than five years old. We urge the University of Chicago to drop the charges against these protesters, and act with urgency to address the lack of trauma care on the South Side of Chicago.

Tens of thousands of nail salon workers throughout New York are exposed to dangerous health hazards on the job everyday. Many nail salon owners only pay workers between $35 and $80 a day, and cases of wage theft are all too common. The majority of the work is done by immigrant women from diverse racial and socioeconomic backgrounds, with limited English proficiency and mixed immigration status. The New York Healthy Nail Salons Coalition (HSNC) is bringing New Yorkers together to create a fair, safe and healthy nail salon industry for workers and consumers. New York State has declared a potentially historic commitment to improving the nail salon industry. Governor Cuomo’s Multi-Agency Task Force is already educating workers, employers, and customers about their rights and obligations, and working to ensure effective enforcement of new regulations. Recently introduced legislation - A. 07630 / S. 05748 will bring thousands of nail salon workers out of the shadows, allowing the state to take a critical step forward on the path to eliminating exploitation and abuse in New York's nail salons. Nail salon workers cannot afford to wait until next year for legislative action. Please tell your legislator to act now!

My community is personally affected by the disproportionality of wrongful convictions of African American males as well as the disparate numbers of African Americans in prisons for the last two decades and beyond. It is time we take action when we are made aware of these injustices. You may not be able to march, or attend meetings, or take a message to your legislators or governor, but you can sign a petition. That does not require you to leave your home and it costs you nothing but a few minutes. Please sign - they could have been your relatives.

Even if you don’t eat Big Macs, you STILL pay for them. That’s because fast food giants like McDonald’s, Taco Bell and Burger King depend on taxpayers like you to subsidize the low wages they pay their workers -- to the tune of $7 billion a year - when their workers are forced to rely on programs like food stamps and Medicaid. It’s SO not right - and it’s time for the fast food giants to get their hands out of our pockets. In New York state alone, taxpayers spend $700 million annually to subsidize low pay at food companies -- the most of any state in the nation. We can fix it. This summer. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo just launched a wage board with the power to raise wages for the 180,000 fast-food workers in the state. And this action would trigger a wave of raises for low-wage workers across the country. We need to make sure they don’t opt for a half measure and instead raise wages to where they need to be: $15 an hour. Time is running out - we need every signature collected by the big hearing in New York City on June 15. Sign now.

If minimum wage had simply kept pace with worker productivity since 1968, it would be over $15 today. Instead, CEOs have gotten richer and richer, while the working class struggles to get by. $15 is winnable -- but only if we speak up. A special wage board will decide by the end of June the new rate for fast-food pay in New York. If New York raises fast-food pay to $15, it will boost paychecks for 180,000 New Yorkers -- most adults, many supporting families. They deserve to be able to pay their rent and feed their families. And this action would trigger a wave of raises for low-wage workers across the country. Tell the wage board: It’s time for $15.

New York may raise the minimum wage this summer for fast-food workers to $15. Raising the minimum to $15 an hour would boost paychecks for 180,000 New Yorkers -- most of whom are adults, many supporting families -- and would trigger a wave of raises for low-wage workers across the country. If minimum wage had simply kept pace with worker productivity since 1968, it would be over $20 today. Tell the wage board you support this fix.

I am a teacher. It is NOT the students' fault if their parents do not send their lunch money. I want students to go to school without worry about food. If the parents forget to send money, the parents need to get a cheese sandwich for lunch.

Americans who work full time should not have to rely on the government for food stamps and housing assistance. And taxpayers should not have to subsidize bottom-basement wages. But that’s exactly what’s happening with our absurdly low $7.25 per hour federal minimum wage. Momentum is building for the Raise the Wage Act, which would raise the federal minimum wage to $12, index it to keep pace with the median wage, and phase out the subminimum “tipped” wage. States and cities across the country have proven that raising the minimum wage doesn’t lead to job losses. In fact, it does just the opposite. It breathes new life into the local economy as workers have more money to spend at local stores and on local services. That creates jobs and economic activity. It’s simply wrong that millions of American are working full time yet still live below the poverty line. It’s bad for the country and it’s bad for the economy. But we can do something about it!

Unless workers feel safe to report practices that put themselves, the environment and surrounding communities at undue risk, or subjects taxpayers to unnecessary expenditures and costs, there can be no meaningful accountability. This petition will require that officials stop ignoring the whistleblower retribution that is standard practice at the Los Alamos lab. Reference the following web links for added perspective: https://lajicarita.wordpress.com/2015/05/23/press-release-call-for-congressional-investigation-of-cover-up-at-los-alamos-national-laboratory/ http://ksfrnews.libsyn.com/may-5-lanl-whistleblower-says-lack-of-accountability-to-blame-for-accidents