Call the White House. A national campaign to stop Race to the Top.
Contact the White House weekly at 202-456-1111 on your state’s designated day.
Message: Give all students the same education your girls are getting! Abandon Race to the Top and stop privatizing public schools.
MONDAY
1. Alabama
2. Alaska
3. Arizona
4. Arkansas
5. California
6. Colorado
7. Connecticut
8. Delaware
9. Florida
10. Georgia
TUESDAY
1. Hawaii
2. Idaho
3. Illinois
4. Indiana
5. Iowa
6. Kansas
7. Kentucky
8. Louisiana
9. Maine
10. Maryland
WEDNESDAY
1. Massachusetts
2. Michigan
3. Minnesota
4. Mississippi
5. Missouri
6. Montana
7. Nebraska
8. Nevada
9. New Hampshire
10. New Jersey
THURSDAY
1. New Mexico
2. New York
3. North Carolina
4. North Dakota
5. Ohio
6. Oklahoma
7. Oregon
8. Pennsylvania
9. Rhode Island
10. South Carolina
FRIDAY
1. South Dakota
2. Tennessee
3. Texas
4. Utah
5. Vermont
6. Virginia
7. Washington
8. West Virginia
9. Wisconsin
10. Wyoming
Showing posts with label Obama. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Obama. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Stop Race to the Top
For those of you looking for a way to stop the Race to the Top, please join the national campaign to stop the Race to the Top. Tuesday is the day that Hoosier citizens have been asked to call.
Monday, October 22, 2012
NEIFPE Letters to the President, 2
Diane Ravitch coordinated a Campaign for our Public Schools in which teachers, students, parents and concerned citizens wrote letters to the President expressing dissatisfaction with the current government policies towards public education. On Saturday, October 20, 2012, Dr, Ravitch reported on the results. A PDF file of all the letters collected was created by Anthony Cody.
The entire file of letters from writers around the country is available HERE. Over the next few days we'll reprint a few of the letters submitted from our members.
It's not too late to tell the President or any elected officials what you think of government policies towards public education. You can find out how to contact your elected officials at http://capwiz.com/npta2/home/.
Dear President Obama,
It was great to see your debate with Romney last night. In it, you were spirited, in command of your facts, and you held your ground when Governor Romney attempted to misrepresent you. With that same spirit, I am writing this letter regarding education, hoping that you will listen, reconsider, and renounce both the policies that your presidency has endorsed through Arne Duncan and Arne Duncan, himself. Perhaps then I can bring myself to vote for you again in this election. I will admit that before last night's debate, I had not planned to participate in this letter writing campaign, thinking that any and all persuasive attempts would be futile wastes of energy. I had resigned myself to the feeling that you no longer cared.
But in light of last night's debate, I will now ask you to do the following: Please avail yourself of the great and mounting evidence that high stakes testing is detrimental to our nation's children and to the institution of public education. Please consider that the uber-competitive spirit of Race to the Top is, in effect, undermining, and in fact, almost destroying the chance for equitable funding and the desegregation of our public schools. Please consider that these policies are wiping out the staples of the arts and physical education in the public schools for the poorest of our nation's children. Please consider that these policies do nothing to support quality early childhood education. Please consider that merit pay for teachers, based on student evaluations, has already been tried and has failed miserably. Please consider that we cannot build a strong economy without a strong public educational system. Please consider that the things you want for your children in a private school are the things that our less fortunate students deserve in the public school. Please consider that the current policies have done nothing to assure equitable access to quality education. Please read the letters that parents and my fellow teachers are sending your way. Please read Diane Ravitch's blog. Please read the writings of Yong Zhao and Pedro Noguera, to name a few. Please look to the lessons of Finland when it comes to Public Education. Please become informed and don't accept Arne Duncan's failing and failed policies anymore.
I could fill this letter with anecdotes and with facts and sources to support my reasons asking you to reconsider, but my guess is that you already have all these things available to you at your fingertips. I could also list my 33 years of experience in Special Education and my "retirement" work with Adult Education, and my credentials as a parent and a grandparent, but I'm really just one of many educated and informed people who are begging you to reconsider the current educational policies of your administration. One thing further I would ask you to contemplate, and that is; Please consider that I am one of the many undecided voters in this election. It is true that I cannot stomach Romney, but I will throw my vote away rather than vote for a candidate who does not, in truth and in actions, support our nation's children and PUBLIC education for all. Please show the same determination and grit in response to this plea that you showed in last night's debate.
Sincerely,
Cynthia J. Pastore
The entire file of letters from writers around the country is available HERE. Over the next few days we'll reprint a few of the letters submitted from our members.
It's not too late to tell the President or any elected officials what you think of government policies towards public education. You can find out how to contact your elected officials at http://capwiz.com/npta2/home/.
~~~
Dear President Obama,
It was great to see your debate with Romney last night. In it, you were spirited, in command of your facts, and you held your ground when Governor Romney attempted to misrepresent you. With that same spirit, I am writing this letter regarding education, hoping that you will listen, reconsider, and renounce both the policies that your presidency has endorsed through Arne Duncan and Arne Duncan, himself. Perhaps then I can bring myself to vote for you again in this election. I will admit that before last night's debate, I had not planned to participate in this letter writing campaign, thinking that any and all persuasive attempts would be futile wastes of energy. I had resigned myself to the feeling that you no longer cared.
But in light of last night's debate, I will now ask you to do the following: Please avail yourself of the great and mounting evidence that high stakes testing is detrimental to our nation's children and to the institution of public education. Please consider that the uber-competitive spirit of Race to the Top is, in effect, undermining, and in fact, almost destroying the chance for equitable funding and the desegregation of our public schools. Please consider that these policies are wiping out the staples of the arts and physical education in the public schools for the poorest of our nation's children. Please consider that these policies do nothing to support quality early childhood education. Please consider that merit pay for teachers, based on student evaluations, has already been tried and has failed miserably. Please consider that we cannot build a strong economy without a strong public educational system. Please consider that the things you want for your children in a private school are the things that our less fortunate students deserve in the public school. Please consider that the current policies have done nothing to assure equitable access to quality education. Please read the letters that parents and my fellow teachers are sending your way. Please read Diane Ravitch's blog. Please read the writings of Yong Zhao and Pedro Noguera, to name a few. Please look to the lessons of Finland when it comes to Public Education. Please become informed and don't accept Arne Duncan's failing and failed policies anymore.
I could fill this letter with anecdotes and with facts and sources to support my reasons asking you to reconsider, but my guess is that you already have all these things available to you at your fingertips. I could also list my 33 years of experience in Special Education and my "retirement" work with Adult Education, and my credentials as a parent and a grandparent, but I'm really just one of many educated and informed people who are begging you to reconsider the current educational policies of your administration. One thing further I would ask you to contemplate, and that is; Please consider that I am one of the many undecided voters in this election. It is true that I cannot stomach Romney, but I will throw my vote away rather than vote for a candidate who does not, in truth and in actions, support our nation's children and PUBLIC education for all. Please show the same determination and grit in response to this plea that you showed in last night's debate.
Sincerely,
Cynthia J. Pastore
~~~
Sunday, October 21, 2012
NEIFPE Letters to the President
Diane Ravitch coordinated a Campaign for our Public Schools in which teachers, students, parents and concerned citizens wrote letters to the President expressing dissatisfaction with the current government policies towards public education. On Saturday, October 20, 2012, Dr, Ravitch reported on the results. A PDF file of all the letters collected was created by Anthony Cody. Dr. Ravitch wrote,
It's not too late to tell the President or any elected officials what you think of government policies towards public education. You can find out how to contact your elected officials at http://capwiz.com/npta2/home/.
Dear President Obama,
After 32 years of teaching, I have been happily retired for a number of years. Even though I am no longer in the classroom, I have become so distressed with what Arne Duncan has done to public education that I have become a grassroots activist, working to slow down some of the reforms that I know are not educationally sound. After the damage done to education by No Child Left Behind, I was hopeful that your Department of Education would turn some of that damage around. Much to my dismay, the Race to the Top has managed to be even worse; it is a punitive NCLB on steroids.
Since all of the educational research says that high stakes testing is neither good for students nor for teachers, it defies reason as to why Arne Duncan and you are putting so much emphasis on test scores. I have heard you say that you do not believe that teachers should be teaching to the test, but that is completely antithetical to what Duncan's competitive rush towards high test scores has caused. If a teacher's performance, if a school's performance, and if a child's performance are based on test scores, how else do you think those scores are going to be raised?
In your speeches, you often claim that you support and honor teachers. Sadly, your rhetoric does not match the actions of the D.O.E. Why are teachers who are in the trenches not consulted? Why are real educational experts not consulted? Why is poverty never addressed? Why is the whole child never considered? Why do faux corporate experts such as Bill and Melinda Gates, Eli Broad, Michael Bloomberg have more sway with your administration than teachers?
Are you aware of how much money is being poured into money making schemes on the backs of the children of our nation? Are you aware of how many teachers are fleeing from the profession they used to love? Are you aware of the unintended consequences of all of these reforms? Are you aware of the level of exhaustion, frustration, and sadness that most good teachers are experiencing as a result of these so-called reforms?
I urge you to speak to those who have been impacted by these ill considered reforms. If you cannot find a teacher who is willing to voice his or her honest concerns, I would be happy to share mine.
Sincerely,
Phyllis A. Bush
In a brief, two-week period, nearly 400 letters were submitted. There were many that were eloquent, many that were heartfelt, many written from personal experience.The entire file of letters from writers around the country is available HERE. Over the next few days we'll reprint a few of the letters submitted from our members.
No one was paid to solicit letter-writers or to write letters. No one who worked to bring the letters together was paid. This was an earnest and completely volunteer effort to carry the views of concerned citizens to the President.
Not a single letter of those submitted expressed support for high-stakes testing or for the policies of No Child Left Behind or the Race to the Top.
It's not too late to tell the President or any elected officials what you think of government policies towards public education. You can find out how to contact your elected officials at http://capwiz.com/npta2/home/.
~~~
Dear President Obama,
After 32 years of teaching, I have been happily retired for a number of years. Even though I am no longer in the classroom, I have become so distressed with what Arne Duncan has done to public education that I have become a grassroots activist, working to slow down some of the reforms that I know are not educationally sound. After the damage done to education by No Child Left Behind, I was hopeful that your Department of Education would turn some of that damage around. Much to my dismay, the Race to the Top has managed to be even worse; it is a punitive NCLB on steroids.
Since all of the educational research says that high stakes testing is neither good for students nor for teachers, it defies reason as to why Arne Duncan and you are putting so much emphasis on test scores. I have heard you say that you do not believe that teachers should be teaching to the test, but that is completely antithetical to what Duncan's competitive rush towards high test scores has caused. If a teacher's performance, if a school's performance, and if a child's performance are based on test scores, how else do you think those scores are going to be raised?
In your speeches, you often claim that you support and honor teachers. Sadly, your rhetoric does not match the actions of the D.O.E. Why are teachers who are in the trenches not consulted? Why are real educational experts not consulted? Why is poverty never addressed? Why is the whole child never considered? Why do faux corporate experts such as Bill and Melinda Gates, Eli Broad, Michael Bloomberg have more sway with your administration than teachers?
Are you aware of how much money is being poured into money making schemes on the backs of the children of our nation? Are you aware of how many teachers are fleeing from the profession they used to love? Are you aware of the unintended consequences of all of these reforms? Are you aware of the level of exhaustion, frustration, and sadness that most good teachers are experiencing as a result of these so-called reforms?
I urge you to speak to those who have been impacted by these ill considered reforms. If you cannot find a teacher who is willing to voice his or her honest concerns, I would be happy to share mine.
Sincerely,
Phyllis A. Bush
~~~
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