PAA on PBS
This excellent
story aired on PBS yesterday featuring our wonderful PAA affiliate
leader, Julie Sass-Rubin, founder of SOS-New Jersey, and her smart, lovely daughter Raisa, who talk about opting out of the PARCC test.
The video briefly flashed on the above archived web photo of PAAers at the Save Our Schools March in 2012 as an example, we guess, of "the left" in the Common Core testing controversy, juxtaposed with a representative of the Eagle Forum as "the right."
Helen submits 6,000 signatures 
We're pleased to report that PAA founding member Helen Gym was able to submit 6 times the needed signatures to qualify as a candidate for the Philadelphia City Council. This shows the strength of her grass-roots support.
Helen also reports a major victory for increased school funding, one of the foundations of her campaign:
Today, (Philadelphia) Mayor Nutter announced a dramatic increase in funding for public education. Together with Governor Wolf's historic state budget proposal, this marks an important shift from just four years ago, when Governor Corbett announced a budget that would strip $1 billion from public schools across the Commonwealth.
When Corbett's draconian cuts to our schools were proposed, we organized and fought back. Make no mistake about it; the new proposals for expanded public school funding are due to our voices finally being heard.
We still have a long way to go. We must ensure that these new public education funding proposals are passed, and we need to continue to organize and hold our leaders accountable.
The reason I'm running for City Council is to ensure that public education remains at the forefront of the discussion at City Hall and beyond.
Thanks, Helen! As a non-profit organization, PAA cannot endorse candidates, but we can report on the efforts and progress of one of our own, in order to encourage other parents to step up and run for office, too!
