One of the primary reasons federal officials originally got involved in public education was to promote equity. Legislation like the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) were supposed to help our neediest children have the educational experiences they need to succeed. But that mission has been seriously compromised, especially since the passage of NCLB under the Bush Administration, and continued under the Obama Administration’s Race to the Top (RTTT). Far from promoting equity, these initiatives have helped facilitate a corporate takeover of public education, by increasing the importance and the amount of high-stakes testing, which corporate-friendly local and state officials have used to justify closing growing numbers of schools in low-income communities of color, and giving our schools away to private charter operators. These charter operators have posed a serious problem. Our partners, the Center for Popular Democracy and Integrity in Education, recently released a report looking at this issue. In just 15 states of the 42 with charter school laws, they found that charter operators have cheated the public out of over $100 million in taxpayer money. That number can’t even begin to capture the harm done to the children in their care—children who went without nutritious lunches, school supplies, and more while charter cheats purchased expensive vacations, homes and other extravagances, all on our dime. Yet despite all of this, Congress is now poised to vote on a bill this week that would send $300 million more of our tax dollars to the charter industry. Ignoring the educators, community members, reporters, judges, Attorneys General, and even the US Department of Education’s Office of the Inspector General who have warned that nearly-nonexistent standards and poor oversight leaves charters especially vulnerable to fraud, Congress is actually considering a bill that would encourage states to further expand the charter industry, while doing virtually nothing to establish desperately-needed protections. Enough is enough. Our federal officials should be funding educational opportunities for each and every one of America’s kids, not just the children in charter schools. And they definitely shouldn’t be sending our money to a poorly regulated industry that puts kids at risk for its operators’ personal gain. Tell Congress to vote NO on H.R. 10.

The Westport public school Administration has decided to "blend" the Kool to be Kind (K2BK) curriculum into their existing social studies curriculum, thereby abandoning the essence of K2KB - a program designed to give HS students the power to help elementary school kids with real and complicated social situations. The administration has cited inconsistent language, inconsistent messages, and parent involvement as reasons to abandon K2BK curriculum. The K2BK directors are willing to do almost anything to ensure the program continues – including stepping down and allowing the Dept. of Health to take over. The K2KB message is clear – be kind, accept differences, open your eyes to those around you, stand up for what you believe is wrong. In this day and age, we need more people instilling the same messages over and over – not less. Please sign and get involved to save K2BK.

My low-income college students already have difficulty being able to afford computers and Internet access which is critical to their college and life success. The Internet, like any other utility, should be regulated so that students have affordable, neutral access to ALL information on the web. Access to this information must not be not controlled by the interests of the business sector as this will skew students' ability to do the objective research critical to their academic success.

As a student, I use many sources on the internet for my homework. If I had to pay for content on my limited budget, it would impact my ability to access content and impact the quality of my work. Not only would it impact me, but thousands of other students and academic researchers too. The quality of education would suffer and our ability to be competitive with other countries would decline as well. Please do not let this happen!

I work as an advocate to help the poor and homeless obtain identity documents. My experience has shown me what a critical step this is for people to obtain self sufficiency or even services of any kind.

Suffering from MS makes access to the latest in research important, period!

I run a blog and a website. I am very much a tech amateur, but want to make available for discussion my ideas in an amusing, yet provocative way. I want others to be able to do the same. We MUST, in our small, many-voiced way, counter the nasty, soulless and greedy culture of "corporatocracy" that enslaves minds.

I have recovered from a debilitating, chronic illness called chronic fatigue syndrome because I was able to find other recovering people on the Internet who taught me how to take charge of my health. Big business would never do that. Big hearts and free speech did it through Internet access.

I work part-time for a non-profit for a senior program providing resources and information. If we allow Comcast and Verizon to move on and leave all of us behind, it would be devastating.

I use the internet to inform myself when I need to make decisions, for entertainment, and to stay in touch with my grown children, grandchildren and friends. Working at a non-profit special education school, my income has not kept pace with the cost of living, since my state sets the rates we charge for our services, and often allows no increase at all. My pay has been eroded over the years, but the cost of internet and cable TV have continued to rise, despite "introductory" rate deals for new customers. I recently dropped cable TV to reduce my costs, and pay to stream what I want to watch. Verizon and Comcast are the only options for high speed internet service where I live, and I was shocked to find out how much they are charging without any competition. Please curb this virtual monopoly, and ensure that all Americans have affordable access to information and entertainment.

I was on CA state unemployment benefits for 26 weeks after losing my job last year, then was on federal unemployment for 2 weeks, then that was cut off when the federal government cut off federal unemployment benefits for everyone at the end of Dec 2013. I have survived on savings and some contract work, but many people have exhausted all their savings and all their options. There are now 1.5 million unemployed people in California, with over half not receiving any safety-net benefits at all. There are not enough jobs for all the people who want them. We need to create many hundreds of thousands of jobs, but as an emergency measure we need to throw people a lifeline and extend their state UI benefits. Having so many unemployed with no safety net is a terrible drag on the California economy. People are losing their personal savings, retirement savings, cars, ability to pay utilities, and some have even lost their houses. These all damage our communities. This can all be prevented, if we want it to. And, unemployment benefits return $1.49 for every $1 spent, so it's a very good investment.

I am a programmer for the government and an Ebay seller, so a fair and fast Internet is essential to my livelihood and quality of life. Don't allow companies such as Verizon and AT&T to give preference to some and slow it down for the rest of us.