Local school districts are suffering from Washington's ongoing antipublic education rhetoric. Educators cannot write fat campaign checks, but they can effectively lobby members of Congress through the AASA Legislative Corps. Now is the time to turn activist and help shape public policy. Supporting the Children's Investment Trust is a good start.…

Congressional education committees will soon reconsider education laws about to expire. The most controversial task is reauthorizing the preschool grants program under the Education of the Handicapped Act. These committees will also restructure the Higher Education Act and the Office of Educational Research and consider a Children's Investment…

Some members of Congress retain a Norman Rockwell image of the two-parent household. To make headway with these leaders, educators must get them into schools and neighborhoods to let them see firsthand the crying needs of children and the schools providing safe harbor for a few hours. Administrators should also share their visions of education's…

Mary Jean LeTendre, director of U.S. Education Department's Office of Compensatory Education, wants to concentrate Chapter 1 dollars on the neediest students in the neediest schools. John F. Jennings, general counsel for the House Education and Labor Committee, predicts more public education funding, a continuing push for national standards and…

Given the state of Chapter 1 funding, regular and special education advocates must fight for higher federal and state special education funding, resist legislators' efforts to divide their common child advocacy interests, work to entitle both special education and economically and educationally disadvantaged children under federal funding…