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About Us
The Horace Mann League of the USA is an honorary society that promotes the ideals of Horace Mann by advocating for public education as the cornerstone of our democracy.
Officers:
President: Joe Hairston, (former) Supt., Baltimore County Public Schools, MD
President-elect: Gary Marx, President, Center for Public Outreach, VA
Vice President: Charles Fowler, Executive Director, Suburban School Superintendents
1st Past President: Mark Edwards, Supt., Mooresville Graded Schools, NC
2nd Past President: Julie Underwood, Dean, Sch. of Ed. U. of WI, Madison, WI
3rd Past President: George Garcia, (ret.) Supt., Boulder Valley Schools, CO
4th Past President: Steve Rasmussen, Supt., Issaquah School District, WA
Directors:
Martha Bruckner, Supt., Council Bluffs Community Schools, IA
Evelyn Blose-Holman, (ret.) Superintendent, Bay Shore Schools, NY
Carol Choye, Instructor, Bank Street College, NY
Brent Clark, Exec. Dir., Illinois Assoc. of School Admin. IL
Linda Darling Hammond, Professor of Education, Stanford U. CA
Charles Fowler, Exec. Dir., Suburban School Superintendents, NH
James Harvey, Exec. Dir., Superintendents Roundtable, WA
William Hite, Supt., Philadelphia City Public Schools, PA
Christine Johns-Hines, Superintendent, Shelby Township, Michigan
Dwight Jones, Superintendent, Clark County Public Schools, NV
Eric King, Superintendent, (Ret.) Muncie Public Schools, IN
Steven Ladd, Superintendent, Elk Grove Unified School District, Elk Grove, CA
Barry Lynn, Exec. Dir., Americans United, Washington, DC
Stan Olson, Superintendent, (Ret.) Boise Public Schools, ID
Executive Director:
Jack McKay, Professor Emeritus, University of Nebraska at Omaha,
560 Rainier Lane, Port Ludlow, WA 98365 (360) 821 9877
To become a member of the HML, click here to download an application.
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The premises of corporate education reform are: (a) the main impediments to improving public schools are teachers' unions; (b) schools need to be run like businesses; (c) educational experience is not required to be a teacher or principal; (d) the corporate education reform model is the only way public education can be transformed; (e) and success can be measured through data-driven outcomes.
Akin to conscientious objectors who refuse to fight wars they deem unjust, principled leavers resign from teaching on grounds that they are being asked to engage in practices that they believe are antithetical to good teaching and harmful to students.
Is there any real wonder why uninformed communities erupt in firestorms over school closings and mergers? School closures and mergers are no fun for anyone.
This is exactly what happens when you rush into big, 'disruptive' changes without thinking about them or fully understanding what you're doing. You break things that weren't already broken and you make messes. 
A truism among ed reformers is that poverty is a problem, but we can't do much about it, therefore we can't let poverty be an excuse for poor learning results. 
"Well, so Chicago has definitely been bearing the brunt of the education privatization movement. I mean, it does show to a certain extent how bipartisan the education privatization push has become. But it really-when you tie it back to where the source of a lot of this legislation, in many cases it's very far-right groups that are trying to push an ideological and profit-driven agenda. So if you look at ALEC, K12 Inc. is one of the top sponsors of this year's meeting." 
Indeed, his decisions at the state level made him attractive as the ideal candidate to complete the job of dismantling the public infrastructure of a land grant university such as Purdue. 
Here is a story about what happens when those who would destroy public education control the message and what you need to know to tell truth to power about these divisive waivers.
On my list of those to be Tested, Bill Gates and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The Walton's and the Walton Foundation, Eli Broad and the Broad Foundation, Michelle Rhee and the Students First organization, also Bloomberg, Parents First, etc., ... you can add other reformers - deformers - to this list because you know the impact they have had on you, students, communities, and the future of an educated nation. 
Here in the industrialized world's most economically unequal nation, public education is still held up as the great equalizer - if not of outcome, then of opportunity. Schools are expected to be machines that overcome poverty, low wages, urban decay and budget cuts while somehow singlehandedly leveling the playing field for the next generation. 
Philadelphia parents have taken a strong stand against the budget cuts that have decimated their children's schools.
With the money of wealth funders like Richard and Betsy DeVos (sister of Blackwater scion Eric Prince and daughter of Elsa and Edgar Prince of the Amway fortune) and the Walton, Koch and Scaife Foundations, simpatico politicians are hard at work bringing 