Public education is under attack. Traditionally revered as the cornerstone of democracy, our public schools are now too often the butt of scorn and ridicule. Politicians call for privatizing education. Newspaper columnists revile "educrats." And children suffer as communities withdraw support from a once-respected institution that has become the target of unwarranted disdain.
This didn't happen by accident. Powerful institutions fuel the antipathy. Think tanks connected with interests seeking to profit from privatized education - and their voices in the press - are leading the assault.
Other powerful forces take advantage of schools’ vulnerability to exploit children. Soda bottlers and junk-food vendors encourage cash-strapped schools to balance their budgets by selling unhealthy foods to kids.
We are public-school parents and advocates who see firsthand that our schools can work. We know that the attacks are unjust and misdirected. In a complex and changing society, our schools face far greater challenges than ever. They need support, not savagery. Exploitation of children by business, civic leaders and journalists should outrage the public.
Our mission is to build support for schoolchildren, classrooms, teachers and communities.
"A war is being waged on America's public schools. They are under siege...Most of those criticizing public schools are not interested in what the facts really say, but only what their ideology demands that the facts say. It's a war. All's fair."
- Gerald Bracey
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Visitors since May 28, 2002 | 
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What PASA stands for:
We support serving healthy
food in public schools. We oppose for-profit
companies operating public schools, nationally and locally. We support Board of Education
members whose focus is on improving education for our children,
not promoting their own political agenda or posturing on world
events. We support accountable,
honest, competent management by the San Francisco Unified School
District. We call for thorough, fair,
accurate news coverage of our public schools. We oppose voucher plans that
drain public funds from public schools to support exclusive
private schools. We have come to view charter schools as a weapon in the arsenal aimed at weakening and destroying public education. While some individual charter schools are functioning effectively, the charter movement overall is creating unaccountable schools that answer to no authority and that do harm to school districts -- and children -- in myriad ways."First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."
- Mohandas Gandhi
Issues:
Food in Schools
Click here to read about how you can ask Congress to provide more money for school food
Click here to learn about improving
food in schools.
Click here to learn how to get
rid of junk food at your child's school!
Click here for a list
of non-food based fund raising ideas.
Click
here for a short guide to banning soda in your school.
Click here to read about student nutrition in the San Francisco Unified School District.
San Francisco Public Schools
Click here to read about how you can help improve school meals in SFUSD schools.
Click here to read a blog about sf public schools.
Click here to learn how our schools could lose $2.5 million per year to which they are entitled.
Click here to read concerns about media
coverage of San Francisco schools.
Click here to learn how Assemblyman
Leland Yee continues to harm children by bashing San Francisco
public schools as a calculated political ploy.
Click here to see how San Francisco
Unified outperforms most large California school districts.
School privatization and charter schools
Click here for Edison Schools coverage
and media archive.
Click here to read PASA's views on
Charter Schools and here for an archive of news stories on Charter School problems.
Click
here to learn why public schools don't operate like
businesses.
Click
here to learn why vouchers are an unfair and ineffective
solution.
Contact us
Awards:
- EducationNews.org has named us the Site of the Week for the week of January 6, 2002.
- 2002 Award for Leadership given to PASA's founder Caroline Grannan by Parents for Public Schools of San Francisco "for her relentless efforts to tell the truth about Edison (and) for her commitment to the ideals of a democratic press..."
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
- Margaret Mead
Page last updated Monday November 02, 2009