Athens, Ga. – A second edition of the award-winning book edited by University of Georgia professor emeritus Carl Glickman titled, Letters to the Next President: What We Can Do About the Real Crisis in Public Education, will soon be on bookstore shelves across the nation.
“I wish we did not need another edition of Letters to the Next President but it is time to enter a new phase and look at what actually has been accomplished and devise ways to improve education from this point on,” said Glickman, now a scholar-in-residence in the department of lifelong learning, educational administration, and policy in UGA’s College of Education.
The book, which received the 2004 Silver Book of the Year Award from Foreword Magazine, is a collection of more than 30 letters written by top education experts, teachers, administrators, elected officials, business and community leaders, students and parents on the dangerous shortcomings of current state and federal policies and offers suggestions for what can be done to improve the nation’s public schools.
The new edition features:
- A new introduction explaining what has happened since the last presidential election and what still needs to be done.
- A new letter by Elizabeth Debray-Pelot, a UGA assistant professor in educational administration and policy, explaining how legislators consciously excluded educators from the planning of No Child Left Behind.
- A list of suggested policy and activist organizations to keep educators, parents and concerned citizens informed
- A Signing Statement from organizations committed to changing and improving current federal legislation, including recommended changes to NCLB.
Letters to the Next President features the ideas and perspectives of contributors from throughout the country on three critical questions:
- What kind of education do we want for all of our children?
- What changes must we make to achieve that goal?
- How do we ensure that the voices of parents, teachers, students and citizens who care deeply about public education are heard at local, state and national levels?
The authors – ranging in age from 8 to 92 -include elementary and secondary students in urban, suburban and rural areas; teachers and other school leaders in Georgia, Nebraska, New York, Texas and Vermont;parents, education policymakers, U.S. senators, museum directors and entertainers.
Karen Hankins, a UGA doctoral graduate who teaches at Whit Davis Elementary School in Clarke County, is among the letter writers.
The contributors donated all royalties to non-profit children and youth organizations and Teachers College Press priced the book below their normal sales price to make it as accessible as possible.
For nearly two decades at UGA, Glickman served in a number of leadership roles on university, state and national commissions to improve schools, teacher education and academic programs. He was founder and remains senior advisor of the Program for School Improvement, and the League of Professional Schools, both based in UGA’s College of Education, the latter of which includes more than 105 member schools in Georgia and across the nation.
He is the author of 13 books on school leadership, educational renewal and the moral imperative of education. His book Leadership for Learning was recognized by the National Association of Education Publishers as one of the four most outstanding education books of 2002.
