Tell President Obama to bring Diane Ravitch on board to help guide education policy in the last year of his presidency, to stop spending federal money on charter schools and stop high stakes testing in our public schools.
With Arne Duncan stepping down as Secretary of Education, President Obama has an opportunity to appoint Diane Ravitch to guide education during this interim period before a new President appoints a new Sec. of Ed.
In the past two decades, 3.3 billion dollars has been spent by the federal government to support the privatization of education in the form of charter schools; even though charter schools have been unable to perform better than conventional public schools overall. Inadequate oversight of how that money has been spent has led to squandered waste. That money has been taken away from public schools resulting in less resources for our school children: higher class sizes, school buildings in need of repair, less resources for the classroom.
The Federal Govt. has recently authorized an additional 350 million dollars more in 2016 for charter schools. Tell President Obama charter schools do not support the learning, health and well-being of all children, and families. We need well re-sourced schools where creativity, project-based learning, environmental stewardship and imagination are fostered.
We need responsible testing generated by school districts and their teachers that does not tie teacher performance to student test scores. The Common Core standards and tests were designed to create a profit driven, education market for the promotion of tests, curriculum and consultants.
Please call the White House hotline at 202-456-1414 or 202-456-1111 to tell President Obama to bring Diane Ravitch to the White House - now. The White House takes written comments at www.whitehouse.gov; click on contact us. Please spread this message through your social media contacts.
