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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, President, Vision Unlimited, Reisterstown, 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, Superintendent, Sterling Heights, Michigan
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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Online courses are supposed to be the great equalizer in education, attracting people across all class backgrounds and nationalities and putting everyone on a level playing field. However, unless radical and progressive organizations insert themselves into the landscape of online education, we won't see change, only more of the same.
For any thinking person, the honeymoon ends as the language of "the global job market of the 21st century" ensues. Absorb the piece below regarding the "thinning" of union contracts- and notice that the "thin" charter school contracts are promoted as a model. Or, better still for privatizers, let's just ditch the contract and replace it with a "compact" focused "on the children":
This study concludes that, compared to the average voter in Washington, an elite group of wealthy individuals, either directly through individual donations or indirectly through their affiliated philanthropic organizations, wielded disproportionate influence over the outcome of the charter school initiative in the state, thereby raising serious concerns about the democratic underpinnings of an education policy that impacts all of the children in Washington State. 
But schools are public goods, not consumer goods. Think about other public goods and services that you use, such as public safety. We don't want to choose from different police providers, we want our local police department to be great: to offer high-quality service that meets the needs of our local community.
The debate on school choice is about more than just opposing vouchers and our efforts center on supporting policy that strengthens public schools. Public school choice can be a good thing. Conversely, any flexibility afforded to 'choice' schools taking public dollars should be available to all public schools: if it's onerous and burdensome for charter schools, odds are it's burdensome for traditional public schools.
