More Urgent Than Ever – Call Your Rep!

Dear CPS Members and Education Activists:

Action Requested
CPS urges our members to call their reps immediately and ask these House members to support amendments that provide better oversight of charters, fairer process for approval of charters, and lessen the impact on the students remaining in the sending school districts.  Sending school districts must have a role in the process rather than have outsiders impose schools that will reduce resources for the rest of the district. Teachers need to be part of the solution in improving schools.  Treating teachers and teacher-unions as the enemy, as some of the bill’s provisions do, is counter-productive.

We know that the procharter school forces are well organized and will be deluging the state house with phone calls and emai l- one only has to look at today’s Globe editorial page to see them at work. WE NEED TO HAVE OUR VOICES HEARD!

If you do not know the name of your Representative go to Where do I vote MA and click on Massachusetts: My Election Information.   → Read More

Support Public Education, Support CPS!

Dear CPS Members and Education advocates:

I write to you to urge you to support CPS.

Last year when I retired after teaching for 32 years, I found myself, at long last, with time to advocate for and support public schools. I looked for a place where I could make a positive impact for the children and teachers in our public schools.

I found Citizens for Public Schools because I understand that they are the only ones in the state whose sole function is to support public schools. CPS does not have a vested interest when it works to promote, preserve and protect public schools and public education.

Volunteering steadily with CPS this year, I have been really amazed at the interconnections of CPS and so many organizations that directly or indirectly support our students, educators and communities.

I had never before spent time on Beacon Hill because I was always working during the hours that one could testify or visit legislators in their offices.   → Read More

A Good Thing: House Puts Brakes on Ed Reform Bill

Just when it looked like the Education Reform Act of 2009 was going to speed through the legislative process with virtually no time for public comment or scrutiny, the House of Representatives sensibly put the brakes on the bill’s progress and adjourned. This gives us all time to consider the original bill, Senate amendments and to let our state representatives know what we think.

Longtime Lincoln-Sudbury High history teacher Bill Schechter does a great job in his letter to the editor of the Boston Globe (published Nov. 27, 2009) of articulating why it’s a good thing that someone hit the pause button on this bill.

To the Editor:

A recent Globe editorial criticizes the state House of Representatives for adjourning and urges it to go back into session to pass a “landmark education reform initiative” so that Massachusetts can compete for federal education dollars (“Fix schools and budget – Legislature’s recess can wait,” November 20, 2009).

   → Read More