Help protect the nation’s public schools from privatization and excessive testing by signing this open letter to President Obama.The future of public schools is in jeopardy. Thanks to federal initiatives like No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top, schools are being deluged with high stakes tests. Private interests, aided by the Federal Government, are attempting to supplant local control, inhibit parental involvement, and to transfer public funding to the hands of corporate interests. Public schools, locally controlled, are a cornerstone of our democracy. Relegating them to corporate-owned test prep factories places our nation at risk and steals our children’s future.
WE DEMAND: - An immediate end to high-stakes student testing and the use of incentives or penalties to compel states and municipalities to use student scores as a basis for evaluating teachers, preferring charter schools to existing public schools, and requiring closure of low performing schools.
- The removal of Arne Duncan as Secretary of Education and his replacement by a lifetime educator who has the confidence of the nation’s teachers.
- The incorporation of parents, teachers, and school administrators in all policy discussion taking place in your administration, inside and outside the Department of Education.
- Create a National Commission, in which teachers and parent representatives play a primary role, which explores how to best improve the quality of America’s schools.
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