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Issue # 24
     September 13, 2012

Information and action for parents coming together to strengthen our public schools. Comments? Suggestions? Stories?  

E-mail us info@parentsacrossamerica.org. 

More at www.parentsacrossamerica.org.

Looking for regular updates on key education stories? Join the PAA News list. Email PAAnews-subscribe@yahoogroups.com  

PAA Action Alert

 

Check out our new web site!

 

Change is hard... and change to a new web design is worse, but we did it (with a few bugs still to de-bug)!

 

Thanks to all for your patience as we transitioned to our new site last week. Take a moment to look at the updated features, including what we hope is a more user-friendly page explaining how to set up a PAA chapter or affiliate, and our Parent Online Toolkit for the Won't Back Down Movie and Beyond.   

 

PAA News

 

PAA/ers in the News

 
PAA establishes Board of Directors 
PAA co-founder Julie Woestehoff prepares to file PAA incorporation papers in Chicago 


The big news announced on our redesigned web site is the formation of PAA's first Board of Directors. As our press release reports, on July 13, 2012, the State of Illinois issued Articles of Incorporation to Parents Across America, establishing the group as an official not-for-profit charitable corporation. The first Board of Directors for the new non-profit organization was selected from among the PAA founders.

We are excited about moving on to this phase in our growth!  

Two big stories had PAAers in the news this week.

Chicago teachers strike
 
Several of our leaders including Chicagoans Becky Malone of the 19th Ward Parents Organization and Julie Woestehoff of Parents United for Responsible Education, along with NYC's Leonie Haimson, have been interviewed on what's at stake in the Chicago Teachers Union contract negotiations. Here's Leonie on CNBC.

PAAers have been saying that Chicago teachers are fighting for the same things parents want - lower class size, a richer curriculum, less emphasis on testing, even air conditioned classrooms for year-round schools. We hope that the strike is settled soon so that children can get back to learning, but we thank the Chicago Teachers Union for taking on this important fight for all of us.

The continuing Won't Back Down saga

PAA founding member Pameal Grundy shares this summary: "The DNC activities of PAA affiliate MecklenburgACTS.org, in which members were denied entry to events sponsored by Democrats for Education Reform and Students First, continued to spark discussion after the convention ended. For a full roundup of media coverage, as well as Pam Grundy's blogs: "Pam and Carol's Excellent Students First Adventure," and "Moms on the Loose: Pam and Carol Meet DFER," visit the MecklenburgACTS DNC page.

For more on WBD, see the report from our Austin TX affiliate, Coalition SAUS below.   

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


Meet the founders:
Caroline Grannan
 

Caroline Grannan, PAA's Parent Trigger expert, got her start in education reform research more than a decade ago. Her first focus was Edison Schools, Inc., a for-profit, NASDAQ-traded charter management company that claimed to bring "the efficiencies of the private sector" to public education.

 

Back in 2001, the San Francisco school board became dissatisfied with its Edison school, and began moving to end the contract. The company fought back, creating a national furor that maligned the San Francisco school board members.

 

Caroline and fellow parent activist Dana Woldow began to scrutinize Edison's record. They soon learned that the schools had unusually high costs, produced subpar results, and pushed out the most challenged students. But despite these failings, editorial pages around the country regularly hailed Edison as a solution to "failing" public schools, reprinting the company's inflated claims without checking them out.

 

These shortcomings eventually sank the company, which now exists as a consultant in a few locales. Caroline, the mother of two public school students, kept researching and reporting.

 

California's parent trigger law, passed in 2010, caught her eye early on. The organization Parent Revolution, founded by charter school mogul Steve Barr and funded by the heavy-hitting Broad, Gates and Walton foundations, was behind the legislation. Parent Revolution announced that it would be targeting schools in San Francisco, putting Caroline on her guard. (It has not actually materialized in San Francisco.)

 

Caroline followed the first parent trigger effort in Compton, near Los Angeles, charting the way that Parent Revolution hired paid signature-collectors in a furtive process which led to an eruption of discontent once parents learned that their signatures were being used not simply to improve their school, but to replace it with a charter. Her blow-by-blow reporting of this story, and that of a second Parent Revolution effort in Adelanto, California, has provided an invaluable correction to inflated claims about the "parent power" that parent trigger supporters claim the legislation will unleash.

 

With both of her children now in college, Caroline works as a freelance editor and does grantwriting for nonprofits. She would like to see a time when organizations like Parents Across America "don't have to put our energy into combating destructive forces," and can just focus on improving schools. But until that day comes, she plans to keep on researching and informing.  

"Just getting the truth out when lies are flying through the air, just getting that out is a challenge and that's what I try to do," she says.

   

From Austin TX affiliate Coalition SAUS
 

Some of our members obtained tickets and attended a pre-screening of "Won't Back Down" movie. Leader Lorie Barzano's review is here.

The photo (above), shows Coalition SAUS parents sitting front and center in second row, but was taken by the Texas Charter School Association at the screening and posted as part of the top story in their newsletter this week...with the caption..."parents attend an advance screening of "Won't Back Down" in support of charter schools." 

Lorie comments, "We're still laughing about that...with the three of us Coaltion SAUS parents, front and center, who definitely do not (and quite vocally in the community) do not support the privatization of public education through the charter school movement." 

  

PAA affiliate Oregon SOS fighting for fair school funding 

  

Oregon SOS leader Susan Barrett reports, "We have just submitted legislative concepts related to: More Funding, More Data Privacy, More REAL Local Control, and LESS Testing. (We haven't exactly made friends in the legislature due to our outspoken nature, but will see what we can do.)

  

"We are also in a coalition with many others to do a mass mobilization on 11/3, The umbrella is austerity, but with a focus on public education, the massive cuts, and the need to focus on the priorities of the people.

"We are also in a coalition with many others for something very Oregon specific - two measures - one to VOTE NO on, one YES. These relate to millionaire tax breaks and something called the corporate kicker.  

  

"We are giving a workshop on October 20th at the NWTSJ conference on changes in Oregon Education Policy and What we Can Do about It. This conference is a Rethinking Schools event."

From PAA-Florida: 

  

PAA-Florida aligned with twelve coalitions from around the state to draft criteria in what we would like to see in a new Education Commissioner.  Shortly after submitting our criteria to the Governor, the Board of Education and to the press, Governor Rick Scott decided to embark on a statewide "listening tour" of education concerns. 

Although his meetings are described as "closed meetings," and although the meetings are by invitation only in advance,  we believe that the criteria our strong coalition produced, precipitated his uncharacteristic tour and urged him to learn more about education issues from the trenches.  

****
Notice to Governor Rick Scott and the FL Board of Education --

At one time, FL citizens had the right to vote in a new Education Commissioner.  That changed under former Governor Jeb Bush. You've mentioned repeatedly the importance of parent 'engagement' and the necessity of including parent voices in education. We agree. 

  

An alliance of Florida parents - representing well over 500,000 voters - from north, central, south and west FL -  united to produce criteria for your search. We ask that you accept this criteria for a new Education Commissioner and incorporate it in your search. Thank you.

PAA affiliates to host Jonathan Kozol  

From PAA Boston affiliate Citizens for Public Schools:

"Our public school teachers and students are increasingly under siege. Groups like Stand for Children, Michelle Rhee's StudentsFirst and similar phony grassroots organizations have become channels for the billionaire owners of Bain Capital, Walmart and others who think they know what is best for our schoolchildren. These groups invest millions in lobbying and public relations to privatize and reshape public education to their liking.
 
Citizens for Public Schools has been fighting for excellent and equitable public education for 30 years. As part of this effort, we are delighted to present  
Jonathan Kozol and the 30th Anniversary Mary Ann Hardenbergh Lecture 
The Memorial Church, Harvard Yard 
Cambridge, MA 02138 
September 19, 2012, at 7:30 p.m. 
 

  

PAA Chicago affiliate PURE will co-sponsor a talk by Kozol on September 27th,
  
PAA Blog Highlights

In addition to the blog posts mentioned above was this new PAA blog post this week:
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 par­ents - and common sense -  

to local, state, and national education debates.