Help us Celebrate Public Schools — and Help a Graduate Attend College

Local public schools and their educators have produced America’s most brilliant artists, scientists, doctors, musicians, lawyers, presidents, and more — people from all walks of life, contributing to society in countless ways. Are you or someone you know graduating in 2019 from a public high school? Help us lift up the importance of public education — with a chance to win a $1,000 college scholarship!
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An Equity To-do List for Boston’s New School Superintendent

Lisa Guisbond, executive director of Citizens for Public Schools, offers key issues the new head of Boston Public Schools should tackle, including equity, transparency, funding, and testing:

"You will find a city eager to be able to trust and believe its school leaders. You will also find a city divided racially, ethnically, and economically, a city and a school system of haves and have-nots. We urge you to take strong action to dismantle inequities in the schools."
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Students Need a Boost in Wealth More than a Boost in SAT Scores

Scores from the SAT and ACT tests are good proxies for the amount of wealth students are born into. Income tracks with test performance. The more money a student’s parents make, the more likely it is he or she will have a higher score, according to College Board data. The less money you make, the more likely you’ll be denied a chance at a selective institution.
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School Vouchers Are a Failed Experiment

School privatization has been a dismal failure, leaving students stranded in low-performing schools while transferring millions of taxpayer dollars into private, for-profit institutions. The latest proof that private school vouchers don’t work for students emerged from an investigation in Louisiana conducted by several news outlets: the state’s $40 million-a-year voucher program has pulled thousands of students out of public schools into failing private schools that receive almost no oversight.
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Chicago Public Schools Will Lay off 220 Teachers, Nearly 500 Support Personnel

Chicago Public Schools announced Friday that the district will lay off 220 teachers and 498 clerks, paraprofessionals, and other support personnel at the end of the school year, in part because of declining enrollment.

Chicago Teachers Union President Jesse Sharkey called the cuts to teachers’ assistants, clerks and other support professionals “a slap in the face” in a year when Chicago received additional state funding.
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