This is my favorite cause. Please join and support if you want to be part of the Resistance.
The Network for Public Education began in 2013, founded by Anthony Cody and me. Since its humble beginnings, the Network has grown to 330,000 followers on its mailing lists. NPE led the protest against the appointment of Betsy DeVos, generating over 100,000 emails to the Senate in a matter of days.
Since then, The Network for Public Education (a 501(c)(3)) and the Network for Public Education Action (a 501 (c)(4)) have grown in both support and stature. NPE has issued respected national reports on topics such teacher evaluation and online learning, as well as a 50 state report card on school privatization with the Schott Foundation for Education. The NPE School Privatization Explained toolkit has been downloaded by thousands and its Another Day Another Charter Scandal page has become a valuable resource for advocates and reporters. NPE has a growing Grassroots Network that puts out monthly newsletters and connects activists across the country. Over 100 organizations belong to the Network.
NPE’s most impactful report to date has been its latest report, Asleep at the Wheel, which documents decades of wasteful spending by the U.S Department of Education’s Charter Schools Program. CSP is, in fact, a charter school slush fund of $440 million annually, which Betsy DeVos has used to expand corporate chains like KIPP, IDEA, and Success Academy. That report has been cited by members of Congress and in news stories across the country; it resulted in the House reducing the funding for the CSP program and a letter to Secretary DeVos from 14 House members demanding answers to questions raised by the report.
Meanwhile, the Network for Public Education Action has grown in influence by issuing Action Alerts to promote pro-public education legislation–hundreds of alerts have been generated producing hundreds of thousands of emails to policy makers, with a typical response of 3,000 or more emails for national campaigns. Action’s blockbuster report on how billionaires have influenced elections to promote a corporate reform agenda has been referenced in news stories. Action also informs voters by endorsing candidates who support public education and national, state and local levels.
Our latest project—the Presidential Candidates Project—rates candidates on their position on charter schools, vouchers, testing and their association with corporate education reform. That project has been cited in news stories as well. We want every candidate for President to explain whether they will eliminate the federal Charter Schools Program, whether they will eliminate the federal mandate for annual testing, and whether they will unequivocally support public schools and oppose privatization.
The organizations hold well attended conferences –five to date. In 2020, NPE Action and NPE will hold a joint conference in Philadelphia on March 28 and 29.
Please join and please come to the Philly conference.
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Diane Ravitch's blog 
I didn’t know the Presidential Candidates Project was already up and running. Fascinating reading. I am writing a check for your birthday, Diane.
I would be delighted if the media asked those questions.
“We want every candidate for President to explain whether they will eliminate the federal Charter Schools Program, whether they will eliminate the federal mandate for annual testing, and whether they will unequivocally support public schools and oppose privatization.”
I hope future debates will ask about K-12 education. It is always a topic carefully crafted to be ignored. Maybe we should flood the media with requests to ask those questions?
I would like Bernie to be given a chance to describe his Thurgood Marshall plan on prime time TV.
“Forthright men of high character” who wrote about the ideal communities to be built in the expansion of the west (Northwest Ordinance) drew plans for free public education including universities. Religion was not specifically to be part of the curriculum. Bill Gates’ school profiteering aims and DeVos’ insinuation of religious beliefs into the schools paid for by the public make both people and, their fellow privatizers into the polar opposite of persons of high character.
In supporting NPE, a statement is made that Americans want high character to drive education.
Will do! &, also, if I can’t come to Philly (& still have my pension, what w/all the uproar about how teachers/retired teachers make so much $$$ for “only 9 mos. of work”), I’ll chip in, again, for someone else’s registration fee. I feel lucky to have been able to attend the first one; everyone should have the opportunity to go.