Participants will gather at the AFT-Maryland office, 5800 Metro Drive, in Baltimore at 4:45 p.m. to board buses bound for the state capitol.

All participants will receive briefing materials that identify the bills of interest to union members and AFT-Maryland’s positions on those bills. Lobby Night participants will visit their elected representatives and inform them of the federation’s positions on legislation that affects working families in Maryland. Lists of the legislators associated with the bills of

ATLANTA (CBS ATLANTA) -

One of the nation's largest teachers unions wants to take the profession up a notch.

The American Federation of Teachers wants educators to take a tough written exam before they step into the classroom at schools across the country.

"We want to see our profession respected and if that's what it takes to earn the respect to attract highly qualified applicants then by all means that's what we need to do," said Ron Fowler of the Georgia Federation of Teachers (GFT).

The whole idea is to raise the bar to ensure kids get the best education possible.

Teachers in Georgia do test

Press Release

• Written By: MARKO ROBINSON
• 10-25-2012

Dismantling Public Education

Georgia Is a Leader in School Privatization Efforts

Our state legislators are at the vanguard of a national, corporate-backed campaign to bring about a for-profit education system.

Education legislation in the Georgia General Assembly probably seems like a snooze: arcane and obscure to voters with school-age children and inconsequential to those without. But the recently concluded legislative session’s education debates made the Gold Dome a key battleground in what can be called without hyperbole a

Click here, to view the NAACP's resolution on charter schools.

Far-out ideologues want to destroy public education in Georgia
By ELLIOTT BRACK
Editor and publisher
GwinnettForum.com

OCT. 12, 2012 -- Let’s take a moment and consider what a charter school essentially is.

It is not like regular public schools. While charter school funding comes from public sources, charter schools essentially are public versions of private schools. If Amendment One passes next month, that could upend public education in Georgia.

Here’s why: public money will go to charter schools, funds that would otherwise go to the local public school. But, get this: there is no accountability

Senator Steve Henson on why he opposes amendment 1

As we approach the Nov. 6th general election, Georgians will be asked to make their voices heard on a number of important issues. From the President of the United States to local government representatives, voters will head to the polls to determine who will make governmental decisions on their behalf.

One critical issue voters will decide on doesn’t have a name or political platform; yet, it has the potential to drastically change the face of public education in Georgia for our children and grandchildren. The Charter School Constitutional

Courtesy of On the Commons Magazine

After 20 Years, Charter Schools Stray From Their Original Mission

Instead of laboratories to improve all schools, many are now for-profit enterprises with poor report cards

A charter school opens in Charleston, South Carolina. (Photo by hdes copeland under a Creative Commons license from flickr.com)

What we know after 20 years is that overall charter schools are no better than public schools. A great deal of evidence exists that, on average, they are worse.

On this, the 20th anniversary of the opening of the first charter school

Courtesy of Gwinnett Daily Post

Why isn't anyone talking about for-profit schools?, by Dick Yarbrough

As of Friday, March 16, 2012

At the risk of sounding like Johnny One-Note, let me go back over my concerns one more time about the charter school constitutional amendment bill in the State Senate that may or may not have been passed by the time this gets to you. (My deadlines and legislative deadlines don’t always coincide.)

I don’t have a problem with charter schools. In concept, charter schools are fine. My problem is that nobody seems to be talking about for-profit charter schools. That is a