DECLARATION of SUPPORT for PUBLIC SCHOOLS

DECLARATION of SUPPORT for PUBLIC SCHOOLS

To:  President Obama, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, and public school district officialsDECLARATION of SUPPORT for PUBLIC SCHOOLS

We, the parents, teachers, students and concerned members of the public schools community, believe that public education should be a national priority and should be fully supported.

We believe that an educated citizenry is essential to a strong democracy.

We recognize that school districts across the nation are facing serious budget challenges. But we also believe that our nation has failed to make the funding of public schools a national priority even in times of plenty. It is time for that to change.

Therefore, we oppose cuts to education.

We also oppose any efforts to privatize public education. Public schools are a public trust that should remain free from private, corporate and political enterprise or agendas.

We oppose any reform that harms our children or our school communities.

We oppose high-stakes testing, which limits the focus of education to test-taking skills and threatens children and their school communities with highly punitive outcomes like mass firings of teachers and school closures.

We oppose the use of standardized student test scores as the primary measure of the worth and work of a teacher or a student. We recognize that the best teachers bring to the classroom much more than test-taking strategies, and much learning cannot be measured by tests.

We oppose excess standardization of schools and curricula.

We believe that one size does not fit all when defining the best academic environment for each of our children. We recognize that children learn at a different pace from one another and we believe our schools should offer the necessary support to students of all abilities and needs.

We believe there are highly successful schools within the public school system, including nontraditional and alternative options, and they should be replicated.

We support teachers and recognize the importance and challenges of their work and believe they deserve our respect.

We believe that class size does matter and we support smaller class sizes, which allow invaluable one-on-one interaction between teachers and students.

We support an enriched, inspiring and sound curriculum for all children, which include the arts, sciences, music, languages and physical education, as well as reading, writing and math.

We believe the purpose of our public schools is to inspire our children to develop critical and creative thinking skills they will use throughout their lives, ignite their imaginations and instill a love for learning.

Don't shortchange our children and their futures.
Sincerely,
The Undersigned

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The DECLARATION of SUPPORT for PUBLIC SCHOOLS Petition to President Obama, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, and public school district officials was created by Seattle Education 2010 and written by Sue Peters, Dora Taylor (dora.taylor@gmail.com).  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.