The Network for Public Education is an advocacy group whose goal is to fight to protect, preserve and strengthen our public school system, an essential institution in a democratic society. Our mission is to protect, preserve, promote, and strengthen public schools and the education of current and future generations of students. We will accomplish this by networking groups and organizations focused on similar goals in states and districts throughout the nation, share information about what works and what doesn’t work in public education, and endorse and rate candidates for office based on our principles and goals. More specifically, we will support candidates who oppose high-stakes testing, mass school closures, the privatization of our public schools and the outsourcing of its core functions to for-profit corporations, and we will support candidates who work for evidence-based reforms that will improve our schools and the education of our nation’s children.
Dear Friends,
Never despair! We are winning.
John Tierney of the New York Times just published an article about “The Coming Revolution in Public Education.”
Tierney sees what we see. The insane obsession with bubble-guessing is out of control. The profiteers have over-reached. The Billionaire Boys Club do not own us nor can they buy our schools. They are losing. We are winning. We are winning because we are fighting for children and for better education for all. We are not fighting for profits and test scores.
Remember this line attributed to Mahatma Gandhi:
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
They laughed when we fought their absurd ideas (“schools can be run like businesses”; “schools should compete for customers”; “schools should be closed if students have low scores”; “private entrepreneurs can fix education”; “young college graduates are better than experienced teachers”; etc.
They fought us and said that we were “defending the status quo” even though THEY are the status quo. Their ideas, their policies are squeezing all joy out of learning, making schools boring places, and destroying the education profession.
Now we are winning because their ideas fail and fail and fail. Their icon, Michelle Rhee, is ensnared in a scandal that refuses to disappear. Their favorite district, New Orleans, where more than 80% of students are in charter schools, is the lowest-performing district in a low-performing state.
We will not sell or lease or rent or give away our children or our public schools.
Friends, join the Network for Public Education.
Join our effort to reclaim public education.
Yes, a revolution is coming. You must be part of it. It will be a revolution where education is more important than test scores. Where people are more important than data. Where teachers are respected as champions of learning. Where every child counts, regardless of their test scores.
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By Deborah Keisch Polin and Tim Scott NORTHAMPTON — Once again, the Northampton public schools are facing a budget crisis. In a series of meetings in April, the mayor discussed a $1.3 million deficit for...
Call-Your-Legislator Day Toolkit One of the most powerful things we as citizens can do for public education is to pick up the phone and call our legislators (and then encourage our friends to do the...
By Jason France (aka: the Crazy Crawfish) The first step is determining if you have a problem. Do any of these sound familiar: Is your new Superintendent too young to shave every day, or wear...
The Board of Directors of NPE has voted to endorse Monica Ratliff in her runoff election for Los Angeles school board. The election will happen on May 21st. We asked both Ratliff and her opponent,...
