PAA Action News
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Aug. 6, 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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Take advantage of Congress's summer break Now is a great time to reach out
to your Senators and Congresspeople about ESEA
Congress is out until after Labor Day, so this is another good time to make a personal visit to your federal legislators' home offices to talk to them about ESEA.
Reauthorization of the federal education law is actually moving along. Both the Senate and the House have passed their own versions. A conference committee is now being put together by the leaders of the House and Senate education committees. This group will work on a compromise bill that will go to each body for an up or down vote (no amendments). Some say this will take a few months; other leaders have expressed a determination to finish in the fall.
When you visit your Congressfolks and Senators,
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PAA News
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The PAA Board election results are in...
The results are in and Khem Irby, Pamela Grundy and Julie Woestehoff have been elected to the PAA Board for 2-year terms.
Pam and Julie are returning Board members but Khem is new to the Board, though not to parent advocacy.
Khem Irby is a leading parent activist/advocate in her NYC hometown, and current residence of Greensboro, NC. Khem was a legal secretary working in NYC for many international corporate law firms. She is married with six children ranging in academic levels from elementary school through recent college graduation. Deeply committed to education, she has given decades of work as a parent advocate and community liaison with Brooklyn Perinatal in partnership with the Administration of Children's Services. She was the President of the NYC Community Education Council, School District 13, serving over 35 schools covering several neighborhoods in Brooklyn with one of the largest Black communities in the U.S. Khem is a former member of the Independent Commission On Public Education (iCOPE), the Coalition for Public Education (CPE), the Grassroots Education Movement (GEM), a Community Liaison for the Administration for Children's Services (ACS) and a Class Size Matters board member.
Khem is co-founder & President Emerita of The Mothers' Agenda NY (The MANY) and an early supporter and member of Parents Across America.
Khem appeared in the film, "The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman," a documentary produced by the Grassroots Education Movement. She is presently assistant teaching in the Greensboro Public School System while still organizing and keeping up with NYC. Khem also conducts parent and teacher support workshops. She is presently pursuing her Bachelor's degree in Christian Ministry Leadership with Barclay College.
Welcome, Khem, and congratulations to Pam and Julie!
Read about all seven PAA Board members here.
 Another great idea for those hot August days... watch PAA Week videos!
PAA Week is history. .. Our 7 days of discussion, information, and inspiration was wonderful, exhausting, and exhilarating, and you can watch the five public sessions again or for the first time using the links here.
You could even watch them on the beach....
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Join us!
| 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! |
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. |
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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