Archives for category: Networkfor Public Education Action Fund

The Network for Public Education Action Fund Endorses Janet Mills for Governor of Maine. Janet Mills is the real deal.

The Network for Public Education Action gives its strongest endorsement to Janet Mills for Governor of Maine. Mills is in favor of fully funding public education and opposes taxpayer money going to vouchers and charter schools. This is what she told the NEA.

“I firmly oppose taking tax dollars from the public education system to fund new private or charter schools, and I do not support lifting the cap on new charters. The proposal to allow for ten charter schools in Maine was largely based on the premise that these schools would serve as an experiment. So far, the promise of dramatically higher-quality education has yet to materialize, and I believe it would be premature to expand that experiment without positive results.”

Mills, the daughter of a public school teacher, has said that she would support increasing beginning teachers’ salaries and that high-stakes testing is a “poor method of evaluating both teachers and students.” She was one of the twenty Attorneys General who successfully sued Betsy DeVos over abandoning federal protections for those who were cheated by predatory, for-profit colleges.

Janet Mills is a true friend of public education and deserves your vote on November 6.

Thank you for all you do.

Register today for the best meeting ever of the Network for Public Education with great speakers and panels!

Come meet your favorite bloggers and hear from outstanding speakers!

Just a few tickets left!

Join us!

The Network for Public Education Action Fund endorses Vangie Williams for Congress in Virginia!

Vangie Williams is running in Virginia’s First Congressional District. She is a graduate of public schools and her six daughters are enrolled in public schools.

“She understands how low teacher pay and morale has led to a teacher shortage in her state.

“Some of the important issues she identified in Virginia’s public schools were the need for more seats for early childhood education/preschool, and insufficient funding and resources for school infrastructure renovations and improvements.

“On the topic of high-stakes standardized testing she told NPE Action that she sees a need for a greater commitment to authentic, real-world learning experiences and richer and more meaningful metrics to measure children’s educational abilities and accomplishments.

“Most importantly, she told us that she is against the movement to privatize public education.”

Her voice is urgently needed in Congress to represent public school parents and teachers and the people not funded by Big Money.

Williams is refusing funding from corporate PACs. She is counting on many individual contributions. She needs our help. She has mine. Crowd-funding is the key to a better future.

Please send her whatever you can afford.

Meet your friends and allies from across the country at the Network for Public Education fifth annual conference in Indianapolis on October 20-21.

There is an all-star cast of speakers and panels.

Join us!

Don’t miss the chance to attend the Network for Public Education’s fifth annual conference in Indianapolis on October 20-21.

This will be the best one yet.

Register now!

Amazing keynote speakers! Amazing panels!

Meet your friends and allies!

Here is the link for registration.
https://events.bizzabo.com/NPE18INDY

Here is the link that shows all of the panels–they are wonderful this year!
https://events.bizzabo.com/NPE18INDY/agenda

Join us in the belly of the beast, Mike Pence country!

Meet the parents and teachers who are fighting to reclaim their public schools from the privatizers!

At last, a gubernatorial candidate who wants to rebuild public education and throw out the profiteers, frauds, and grifters! Voters in Florida have a chance to clean the Augean stables and elect a great Governor for public education!

The Network for Public Educatuon Action Fund is thrilled to endorse Andrew Gillum for Governor of Florida!

The Network for Public Education Action is proud to announce its endorsement of Andrew Gillum for Governor of Florida.

Andrew Gillum is a strong supporter of public education and he calls Florida’s corporate school reforms “a failure.” He has proposed a $1 billion increase in funding for public schools, which would include a minimum starting salary of $50,000 for teachers and an expansion of Pre-K opportunities.
Mr. Gillum believes that high-stakes testing reforms have failed our students and schools.

When it comes to charter schools and vouchers, Andrew Gillum had the following to say:

“Charter schools have a record of waste and unaccountability that we would never tolerate from public schools. Yet, our state’s education budget continues rewarding charter schools at the expense of public schools; for example, the 2018-19 budget allocates $145 million to charter school maintenance — three times the amount allocated to public schools. As a product of Florida’s public schools, I believe we make a promise to our state’s children to provide high-quality, accessible, public schools. We weaken that promise every time we divert taxpayer funds into private and religious education that benefits some students, but not all.”

On November 6, please cast your vote for Andrew Gillum.

Mercedes Schneider reviews the new NPE report “Hijacked by Billionaires” and discusses her role in its early days.

She adds:

“For those wishing for more insight on following the money behind elections, I can offer another resource. Along with New York professor, researcher, and journalist, Andrea Gabor, Darcie Cimarusti and I will be participating in the following presentation at NPE’s 5th Annual Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana, October 20 – 21, 2018:

“Where Did All of This Money Come From?? Locating and Following the Dark Money Trail

“In this session, presenters will discuss the ways in which they use publicly available sites, including those of secretaries of state (campaign funding) and nonprofit tax form search engines, to discover individuals and organizations seeking to systematically spread ed reform privatization to cities and states across the nation. Audience members will be afforded opportunity to engage in Q&A with speakers and with each other. The intended audience includes individuals seeking practical information on how to discover exactly who is funding local/state elections, ballot initiatives, and pseudo-grassroots education groups.

“Come and learn how to expose the billionaires’ election purchasing.

“The more attention that is brought to this issue, the better.”

This morning, the Network for Public Education Action has published a major report on the role of Big Money in buying elections to control education and undermine democracy.

“Hijacked by Billionaires: How the Super Rich Buy Elections to Undermine Public Schools” examines several districts/states where the super-rich have poured in money from out-of-state to buy control of school boards and buy policy, with the goal of advancing privatization.

The case studies include: Denver, Los Angeles, Newark, Minneapolis, Perth Amboy, N.J., Washington State, New York City, Newark, Rhode Island, and Louisiana.

This carefully documented report deserves your attention. It names names.

The rich use their money to steal democracy and local control.

Their only idea is privatization. They use their vast wealth to take away what belongs to the public.

Read it. Share it with your friends and colleagues. Post it on social media.

If you want to help the Network for Public Education and the Network for Public Education Action Fund continue its work to support public education, sign up, donate, come to our annual meeting in Indianapolis on October 20-21.

Peter Greene will attend the Network for Public Education’s 5th annual conference in Indianapolis on Oct 20-21.

You should be there too!

Every gathering has been better than the one before.

You will meet Peter Greene, Mercedes Schneider, Carol Burris, Anthony Cody, Leonie Haimson, and all your favorite bloggers from across the country.

Join us!

This was one of the super-best speeches as the annual Network for Public Education in Oakland last October.

The speaker is Yohuru Williams, dean of the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul-Minneapolis. You have probably seen him on public television. He is an inspirational speaker.

You can get more of the same on October 21-22 in Indianapolis, when NPE holds its sixth annual conference at the Marriott Hotel. We have a great lineup of speakers and workshops.

You can register now.

You have to watch Yohuru. You really do!