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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: Gary Marx, President, Center for Public Outreach, Vienna, VA
President-elect: Charles Fowler, Exec. Director, Suburban School Admin. Exter, HN
Vice President: Christine Johns-Haines, Superintendent, Utica Community Schools, MI
1st Past President: Joe Hairston, President, Vision Unlimited, Reisterstown, MD
2nd Past President: Mark Edwards, Superintendent, Mooresville Graded Schools, NC
Directors:
Laurie Barron, Supt. of Schools, Evergreen School District, Kalispell , MT
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
James Harvey, Exec. Dir., Superintendents Roundtable, WA
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
Kevin Maxwell, CEO, Prince George's County Schools, Upper Marlboro, MD
Stan Olson, Director, Silverback Learning, Boise, ID
Steven Webb, Supt. of Schools, Vancouver School District, WA
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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Public education is becoming big business as bankers, hedge fund managers and private equity investors are entering what they consider to be an "emerging market." As 
Myth 4. The public-yet private nature of charter schools contributes to the perpetuation of the private school myth. Like private schools, charter school have some decision-making authority, such as control over faculty and curricula. Charter school teachers are not allowed to form a union - charter school advocates claim they are not subject to the rules of the state, further, parents are unaware that charters don't have to provide student rights or due process for their employees.
Conventional wisdom holds that it's hard to garner sympathy for relatively well-paid public workers at a time when fewer and fewer people have jobs that make ends meet. So the so-called "age of austerity" has seen teachers' unions and other public-sector employees accept cut after cut. Teachers in particular have been targeted by an education reform movement that posits unionized educators as a threat to children's learning.
The national poverty rate (based on pre-tax income of less than $23,492 for an average family of four) was 15.0 percent in 2012; the rate was 17.7 percent in nonmetro areas and 14.5 percent in metro areas. Poverty rates vary both across regions-the South is highest and the Midwest lowest-and within regions. High-poverty counties (with a poverty rate of 20 percent or higher) are often geographically clustered. 
In the first analysis in nearly 15 years of information from all of the country's 97,000 public schools, the Education Department found a pattern of inequality on a number of fronts, with race as the dividing factor.
The complaints are coming from all sides: from Tea Party activists who worry about a federal takeover of education and from educators, parents, and progressives who believe that the Common Core will standardize instruction and eliminate creativity in their classrooms.
While taxpayers don't directly fund private schools, they do fund voucher programs that allow parents to spend public money on private schools that have virulently anti-science curricula. Voucher programs have long been a favored cause for the Christian right. And the Christian right is now having an impact on what kids are learning.
Taxpayers in 14 states will bankroll nearly $1 billion this year in tuition for private schools, including hundreds of religious schools that teach Earth is less than 10,000 years old, Adam and Eve strolled the garden with dinosaurs, and much of modern biology, geology and cosmology is a web of lies. 
The Evergreen State's waiver was initially conditional. It then was placed on "high-risk status" back in August, because, under Washington's teacher-evaluation system, districts don't have to use state assessments as a factor in gauging educator performance-they can rely instead on student outcomes on local tests. That's not kosher under the department's waiver system, which insists on state exams.
Washington has always had a rocky waiver experience, and the reason why has always been how student growth is included in teacher evaluations. To be clear, Washington's evaluation system includes student growth measures. It just doesn't always include the right ones. 
Most people believe that charter and private schools are preferable alternatives to traditional public schools. This is evident in the palpable anxiety at school open houses, in overheard conversations at coffee shops, and humorless posts on parent blogs. And it comes across quite clearly in survey data. According to a recent 
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