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Issue # 3
April 5, 2012

Information and action for parents who want to help strengthen our public schools. Comments? Suggestions? Stories? E-mail us [email protected].  

More at www.parentsacrossamerica.org. 


PAA Action Alert

 

Add some parent voices to NBC's Education Nation! Those wacky folks behind "Waiting for Superman" are preparing to roll out another propaganda film this fall, and NBC is starting up now to push, push, push on the movies' themes of bad teachers and wonderful charter schools.  

 

The Ed Nation road show begins April 12 in Denver, then moves to San Francisco May 2, Atlanta May 6-7, Miami May 20-21, and ends up June 27 at the Aspen Institute (scene of Jonah Edelman's shocking revelations last year about Stand for Children's buying off Illinois legislators and lobbyists).     

 

If you can make it to any of these cities, please contact Ed Nation here, or their publicist, Meghan Pianta, <[email protected]>  Here's their press release.  

 

Get ready for the event (even if you can't be there!) by reading our 2011 open letter to NBC about how they froze out grass-roots parents from their panels in 2011 and 2010. Re-watch (or order here if you haven't already seen) "An Inconvenient Truth about Waiting for Superman," which features PAA's own Leonie Haimson.  

 

Read our position paper on the parent trigger and this eye-opening NYT piece to get ready for the big September feature film which stars Oscar-nominated actress Viola Davis of "The Help," Maggie Gyllenhall and Holly Hunter in a movie called "Won't Back Down." Brave women demand that their school must be closed!! Bring your hankies!    

 

Most importantly, talk to your friends and family about what you know. Lots of folks will be gathered around the brisket, leg of lamb or jelly beans over the next few days. Tell them the truth about what's really going on in education.    

PAA News

Hurray! PAA formation named one of top 10 "hopeful, tangible signs of growing resistance to the corporate reform agenda" by the progressive education journal Rethinking Schools. Here's what they wrote:

 

Parents Across America has linked experienced parent activists in Seattle, Chicago, New Orleans, New York, Florida, and elsewhere into a growing parent voice for better education policies and programs. The landscape is different in every city, but there is no more crucial work than mobilizing parents and building an alliance with teachers to defend and improve public education. Even a small group of activist parents can have a big influence on local reform debates if they join with educators, community leaders, and others. If you haven't connected to PAA already, do it (www.parentsacrossamerica.org).   

 

You can read the full, excellent article by Stan Karp here.  

 

cupcakeVirtual bake sale for PAA D.C. trip!

Several PAA members have been invited to Washington D.C. for an April 20th parent forum hosted by the US Department of Education. We want to make our voices (and yours!) heard by people who rarely give us the opportunity. Since PAA's budget is minuscule, we could use your help to support travel expenses for some participants. We need to raise about $3,000, fast!

 

You can use our Donate button here - please indicate that this is a donation for PAA.     

 

Occupy the DOE 

New PAA member Dov Rosenberg spoke at Occupy the Department of Education last weekend, sharing the mike with Chicago's Mike Klonsky. Thanks for representing us, Dov!

 

Dov and Mike K 


PAA in the media
Blogger Jeff Bryant, who writes for the progressive Campaign for America's Future, linked to our testing fact sheet in his March 29 post on the growing opposition to more student testing. 
PAA Blog Highlights
 
Join Us!

Parents Across America invites existing local or statewide groups who share our overall goals of progressive, positive education reform and more parent input in education policymaking to affiliate with us. The more of us there are, the stronger our voice will be at every level. We are also looking for parents who are interested in forming new chapters of PAA in their states and/or local communities. Check out what we believe, and if you agree, join with us! Read more here.

PAA Chapter/Affiliate News
PAA-Seattle:
Parents here and elsewhere are increasingly interested in opting their children out of the state standardized tests.
 
 
Parents Across America (PAA) is a non-partisan, non-profit grassroots organization that connects parents and activists
from across the U.S. to share ideas and work together  
on improving our nation's public schools.    

PAA is committed to bringing the voice of public school par�ents - and common sense - to local, state, and national education debates.