On August 30, 2012, the Law Center’s Michael Churchill was one of only 40 education leaders from Pennsylvania invited to Washington to meet with White House senior policy advisors and top staff from the Department of Education. The group was brought together to discuss the needs of Pennsylvania’s public schools; the effects of cuts to areas like special education, tutoring, school nurses, transportation and art; and the negative impact of the No Child Left Behind Act. Attendees emphasized the urgency of developing policies that address education equity and that restore faith in our public schools, while officials agreed with the need to reinvest in our schools and address the problems created by No Child Left Behind. We hope that this type of dialogue will serve to raise awareness about the challenges our schools face, develop discourse for change, and begin the steps towards public education reform.
For more information on what was discussed that day, click here to read a blog article by Diane Ravitch, Research Professor of Education at New York University, who was also in attendance.