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PAA Action News
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Apr. 23, 2015
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Welcome to PAA Action News, the information and action newsletter of Parents Across America.
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PAA Action Alert
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 Who's watching the
charter school billions?
Sign up for our May 5 webinar
on charter school accountability
Did you know that President Obama has asked for an extra $120 million for charter schools in his FY16 budget? The increase would bring the total amount of federal funds for charter schools to $375 million, a 48 percent increase over last year. Overall, Congress has spent $3,352,841,281 to create and expand charter schools. Yet from January 2005 through September 30, 2014, the Office of the Inspector General of the US Department of Education has opened 65 charter school investigations. To date, these investigations have resulted in 41 indictments and 30 convictions of charter school officials." Who is watching the charter schools???PAA is pleased to join with the Center for Popular Democracy (CPD) in a webinar on the many problems with poor charter school oversight which wastes millions of dollars every year. Lawmakers ignore this growing scandal as they continue to push for rapid charter school expansion. Parents need to learn the facts about charter school waste, confront your representatives, and push for common-sense reforms.
Join PAA and CPD policy experts in a webinar to learn about the results and the policy implications of the findings. When: Tuesday, May 5, 8 pm ET, 5 pm PT Where: Sign up here!  Support the Tester amendment for fewer tests We love the fact that it is the aptly-named Senator Jon Tester (D-Mont) who came through for us and offered a grade-span testing amendment to ESEA. Here's the language of the amendment -- called the Student Testing Improvement and Accountability Act -- and the Senator's press release announcing the amendment. We don't have a bill number yet, but we'll let you know once we do so that you can contact your Senators to support it |
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PAA and PAAers in the news
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 Big news out of Philly The Philadelphia Inquirer has endorsed PAA founding member Helen Gym for city council! They wrote,
Council needs an upheaval to return it to its mission of representing the public. Fortunately, the crowd of candidates seeking five Democratic at-large Council seats includes political newcomers with impressive civic experience and potential.
Though Helen Gym is best known as a fierce advocate for Philadelphia's public schools, she has been an effective activist on a range of issues. Gym, 47, of Logan Square, cofounded the Public School Notebook and the advocacy group Parents United for Public Education. She is appropriately impatient with the status quo... Great news, and congratulations, Helen! |
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Join us!
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If you share our overall goals of progressive, positive education reform and more parent input in education policy making, we invite you to affiliate with us if you are an existing group, or to form a new PAA chapter. The more of us there are, the stronger our voice will be at every level. Here's how! |
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PAA chapter and affiliate news
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 PAAers at NPE conference
This weekend several PAA leaders will be in Chicago for the Network for Public Education conference.
We'll be presenting a session on "The Impact of Poverty, Race, and Cultural Bias on Educational Opportunity," at 9 am Sunday at the Drake Hotel.
There are still a few tickets left for this important event - check here for availability.
We are hoping to get PAAers together at some point while in Chicago (probably Saturday dinner) so if you are going to be there, let us know! JulieW@parentsacrossamerica.org.
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PAA blog highlights
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Keep up with our blog for more news and commentary on public education from the parents' point of view. |
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To learn more...
| If you have questions, comments, suggestions or stories to share, please e-mail us at info@parentsacrossamerica.org or visit www.parentsacrossamerica.org.
Looking for regular updates on key education stories? Join the PAA News List by e-mailing PAAnews-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
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