Washington, U.S.A. – 857 empty desks on the National Mall represent the number of students who drop out of American schools every hour of every school day. On June 20 The College Board kicked off a nationwide movement to make education a more prominent issue in the 2012 presidential campaign.

The effort calls upon the major candidates to discuss and debate their plans for reform amid an alarming decline in the state of American education. The College Board launched the campaign on the National Mall with a compelling public installation of 857 school desks, representing the 857 students who drop out of American schools every hour of every school day.

“‘Don’t Forget Ed’ recognizes that education is the foundation of our society. If our schools fail, then so will everything else — from our economy to national security,” said College Board President Gaston Caperton. “Yet every four years, the issue of education is shockingly underplayed on the campaign trail. That’s why this year we are encouraging candidates all over the country to tell voters precisely how they would reverse the sharp decline of American education. Parents, teachers, students and administrators have had enough of the silence. This year they are speaking loud and clear, and the College Board is committed to amplifying their voices.”

“Don’t Forget Ed” is an innovative, multi-tactical campaign that is being launched on the National Mall with an installation of 857 empty school desks symbolizing the number of students who drop out of school every hour of every school day.

The campaign includes a website, a petition to be presented to the candidates at the nominating conventions, a full-page ad in The New York Times, and a PSA featuring former New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and Merone Tesfaye.  Tesfaye is a graduating senior at New York’s LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts and will be tweeting and speaking to promote the campaign over the summer months.

On August 15, “Don’t Forget Ed” will rally thousands of voices via Twitter and Facebook in order to send a powerful message to the candidates.”Don’t Forget Ed” will continue staging additional events in conjunction with the nominating conventions and leading up to Election Day to generate further support and engagement.

“We’re not criticizing any candidates and we are not advocating a particular policy. We are mobilizing students and others to create a more visible constituency that wants education to be a prominent issue in the election,” said Peter Kauffmann, vice president of communications at the College Board. A poll commissioned by the College Board in April 2012 found that 67 percent of voters in nine key swing states believe education is an “extremely important” issue in the run-up to the general election.

More than 1.2 million students drop out of school every year, which averages out to 6,000 students every school day and 857 every hour. Recent data show that students in this country rank 25th in math and 21st in science among students from 30 industrialized nations.

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The New Zealand Government has proposed changes to the Student Loan Scheme in order to increase repayment rates and bring the overall loan balance to a more manageable figure.

“This in turn will make the scheme fairer for the vast majority of borrowers who do honour their loan obligations and for taxpayers more generally,” says Revenue Minister Peter Dunne.

However student advocate groups are opposing the move saying they will make it even harder for new graduates to find their feet as the repayments start too low and demand too much.

“New Zealand graduates already make payments from a level of income below any other income-contingent loans scheme in the world; the rate of payment proposed will now also be higher than is demanded anywhere else,” said Pete Hodkinson, President of the New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations (NZUSA).

Currently those with student loans who earn over $19,084 per year pay 10% of their income over the threshold. This will rise to 12%, an increase that the Massey University Extramural Students Society and NZUSA estimate will cost students and graduates between $15 and $30 per week.

The Green Party is also opposing the Government’s proposal, stating that a graduated rate would be fairer and more effective.

“A better alternative would be a progressive repayment rate that kicks in when graduates are actually earn[ing] higher incomes so that those who can afford to repay their loans do so, while those on lower incomes have a chance to find their feet first,” suggests Green Party student spokesperson Holly Walker.

The Government has also indicated it plans to make changes around student allowance eligibility and is considering a student allowance cap of four years.

The student allowance scheme allows students from low income families access to funding for living costs which is not added to their loan.

Student groups, including the New Zealand Medical Students Association, are also angered by these plans saying that it is unfair to those completing longer degrees and may discourage students from entering those degrees including medicine which is a minimum of eight years.

“We have grave concerns that the seven-year cap on student loans and now this four-year cap on access to student allowances may force students to take out high-interest bank loans to live, which will reduce access to tertiary education for many students and is unreasonable,” says NZMSA President Michael Chen-Xu.

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In the state of Florida, newly elected Republican Governor Rick Scott is proposing huge cuts to education spending in a state where teachers are already among the lowest paid in the country.  Scott’s announcement was met with statewide protests as educators, parents, and students fear cutting education that drastically will mean big changes for an already floundering school system.

Scott is proposing a K-12 budget for the coming year that is $1.75 billion less than the current education budget.   Nearly half of that reduction, according to Scott, is because the federal government won’t be sending the $873 million stimulus for education that it sent last year.  Claiming austerity measures and the need to balance the budget, Scott urged GOP lawmakers, “don’t blink” when faced with stares from critics.  However, Scott’s slashing of education will not benefit the state in any way.  In his proposed budget, he will gash education funding by $1.75 billion and then give away nearly the same amount on corporate and property tax breaks.  It is reverse Robin Hood.  The money potentially saved by killing education would not close the state budget gap at all.

Under Scott’s proposed budget, teachers would receive a pay cut certainly. But, students would also be affected.  Scott’s $16.5 billion K-12 budget proposal would cut per-student spending to $6,196, $703 less than this year’s $6,899.  The governor’s budget also projects $209 million less from discretionary taxes that school boards are allowed to raise additionally. Overall, that has Scott’s plan delivering $867 million less in property taxes for education.

Some Florida residents accuse Scott of reneging on a campaign pledge to hold education harmless. “Every candidate who ran in this last election ran on a campaign saying, ‘I support education,’ ” said Palm Beach County schools lobbyist Vern Pickup-Crawford. “Nobody ran on a campaign saying, ‘Elect me. I’m going to cut schools 10 percent.’ Including the governor.”

Teachers resent that they are the new scapegoat.  Roosevelt Middle School civics teacher Mike Dowling said he can weather a 5 percent salary reduction even though he, like other Palm Beach County teachers, hasn’t had a pay raise in three years.  But he worries about other teachers who are trying to survive on a tight budget.  “I don’t know that we can afford to make much less than we make,” Dowling said. “We’re talking about teachers not being able to pay the light bill, the phone bill. It scares me that Gov. Scott is trying to balance the budget and give tax breaks to wealthy people on the backs of the teachers.”  Dowling also said he’s concerned that respect for teachers is at an all-time low since he became an educator 18 years ago.  “When did teachers become the enemy?” he asked. “We are the people that you trust your children’s future to.  Society trusts me with their most precious resource, their children. And I’m wondering what we value.”

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