This is an appeal from a group of concerned educators and parents in Colorado who want to let parents know that they have a right to opt their children out of high-stakes state testing. They want to rent two big highway billboards. Can you help them? (Sorry I don’t have the graphic for the billboard. I bet if you email them, they will send you the graphic of the billboard.) I sent them a check. I hope you will too.

Dear Colleagues:

The good news is that our billboard campaign is off the ground. We have had a few early donations to the cause and our account at the Weld Schools Credit Union is just over $1,000. The donations have come from Boulder and Greeley, Colorado. Each year we have seen more parents exempt their children from this boondoggle of testing. The 2014 figures show that 1,412 parents exempted their children, up from 946 in 2013. I am attaching a photograph of last year’s billboard. This year’s boards will have a similar look, of course with the change of acronym to PARCC.

We have contracted with Mile Hi Outdoor Advertising for two billboards. One on Route 85 south of Greeley, and the other in a high visibility area in South Denver at Hampden and Santa Fe Avenues. The two billboards will cost $3,700 and will go up in mid-January, symbolically around the celebration of the works of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We will have the billboards for at least one month and likely for longer if all is well.

All donations are greatly appreciated, no matter the amount. “Revolutionary headquarters” is at the following address:

The Coalition for Better Education, Inc.
2424 22nd Avenue
Greeley, Colorado 80631

In appreciation and solidarity,

Don Perl
The Coalition for Better Education, Inc.
http://www.thecbe.org

Department of Hispanic Studies
University of Northern Colorado
Greeley, Colorado 80639
don.perl@unco.edu
970-351-2746