Night of house parties set to draw attention to education
By BEN FELLER, AP Education Writer
Last Updated: August 11, 2004, 06:23:00 PM PDT
WASHINGTON (AP) - Determined to make education an election-year issue, a coalition of mostly liberal-leaning groups is planning what amounts to a giant party - a single night of gatherings in homes, churches and libraries to get people talking about public schools.
The Sept. 22 event is billed as potentially the largest mobilization ever for public education, with house parties in every state reaching at least tens of thousands of people.
It is also described as a nonpartisan push to elevate education as a national priority and get leaders to fix problems with No Child Left Behind, the federal law championed by President Bush and approved with bipartisan support from Congress in 2001. Yet some of the groups leading the way are putting considerable money behind getting Democrat John Kerry elected president.
"We will work with anybody who has the goals and objectives of increasing support for the quality of public education," said Reg Weaver, president of the National Education Association, the largest union in the country. It has endorsed Kerry for president.
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