Thursday, October 25, 2012

Back to School: What's happening?

Last night, at Parents United's citywide parent meeting, several dozen parents from across the city gathered together to talk about the most pressing issues facing our schools. We heard from a parent who had ! 38 kids ! in her daughter's kindergarten class at John B. Kelly. A mother from GAMP spoke about how her fifth grader could lose bus service next year due to budget cuts; meanwhile parochial, charter and private school students are guaranteed yellow bus service. A parent at Greenfield said quality instruction is pushed to the back burner while a mom from Franklin Learning Center talked about how much she wants cross-cultural dialogue and an anti-bullying program at her school, but struggles to make it a priority with all the problems the District is facing. Parents talked about the lack of investment in neighborhood schools and how inadequate "choice" is when the neighborhood school fails. A lottery isn't exactly an option.

So tell us, what's the most important issue facing your school this year?

Parents United's blog is back up and running

After a long hiatus, Parents United's blog is back up and running. There are some great places where dialogue about our schools is happening (the Notebook is a great example), but there's aren't many places where PARENTS are talking about our experiences with school and school reforms. So we're bringing Parents United's blog back as a forum for parents to reflect on changes that are happening and most important, how those changes impact our children's learning experiences. We're looking forward to the conversation.