Our Independent A-Political Petition!
There’s a huge backlash to petitions right now, and rightfully so. The platforms people use to create petitions are often terribly partisan, flood people with emails, beg signers for money, and basically just suck. Not ours. We made our own, and will NOT sell your information, or flood you with emails.
Our petition vs. others:
The reason why petitions have become cringey, is that they have become useless virtue signaling. People sign and share petitions which do not amount to a hill of beans.
Our homemade, fully independent petition, is an actual appeal to the United States Congress. We are using our constitutional right, enshrined in the first amendment of our constitution, which allows the American people the right to seek redress for grievances.
In short—this petition is legit. Please read the short petition below, and complete the submission form to save public education in America.
The Petition:
You can make a powerful difference in our democracy today—by signing this petition to support a national transformation of K-12 education. At the heart of our nation’s educational crisis is a truth no one wants to admit: America is failing its children, and the people who know how to fix it—our teachers—have no real power to lead.
Two Urgent Problems:
Let’s start with just two of many glaring issues:
Literacy Failure: Despite spending billions on standardized textbooks and corporate curricula, the U.S. ranks in the bottom half globally for literacy rates.
The Unseen Teacher Shortage: We don’t have reliable national data on the scope of the teacher shortage. But we do know this—rural, urban, and special education students are being hit the hardest. The lack of transparency and accountability in tracking teacher shortages spans red, blue, and purple states alike.
How is this possible? How did we let the most basic functions of public education collapse?
While it’s tempting to blame the U.S. Department of Education, the truth is more complicated. The real decision-making power in K-12 education lies with local school districts—and therein lies the problem.
Local school boards often consist of individuals with no educational experience. District leaders and superintendents who haven’t taught in decades (if ever) are making decisions about what happens in classrooms. Billion-dollar textbook and ed-tech corporations profit while veteran teachers are sidelined. Meanwhile, administrators serve at the pleasure of local politicians, with little protection from political pressure or community backlash.
Even the state and county offices that should be overseeing local districts are underfunded, underpowered, or entirely absent from the conversation.
The Root of the Crisis:
Our public education system was originally designed in the 1830s—for women who couldn’t vote, own property, or lead. That legacy still haunts us. Today, teachers—our nation’s true experts in education—have no formal, national governing body, no professional board, and no say in how their own profession operates.
We are the only credentialed workforce in America without a national professional governing board guiding standards and protecting the integrity of our work.
The Result:
A system that rewards profit over people. Corporations rake in billions while classrooms are short-staffed, under-resourced, and over-regulated. Politicians and administrators impose top-down mandates while teachers, who know what actually works, are ignored.
The Solution: A National Professional Governing Board of K-12 Teachers
It’s time to put teachers back at the center of education. We are calling for the creation of a national professional association of current classroom teachers—like the American Medical Association or the American Bar Association—to:
Set professional standards and practices
Ensure accountability in curriculum and governance
Create paid leadership roles for veteran teachers
Share equal power with school boards and administrators
Represent the only voice in K-12 education not influenced by politics or profit
Why Teachers?
Because we are the only group that:
Holds real, current classroom and K-12 education expertise
Has earned tenure protections
Is committed to our students over any political or financial agenda
How Will It Work?
This national governing board would empower current teachers to lead—by releasing them from part of their classroom responsibilities and giving them official leadership roles at the school, district, state, and national levels. They would work alongside, not beneath, administrators and school boards, with equal power in decision-making.
What We Need from Congress:
Creating this teacher-led workforce will require congressional action. The U.S. Congress must create this national governing board. And if the current Congress won’t act—we’ll keep bringing this petition forward until one does.
What You Can Do:
Sign this petition. Help us reach 100,000 signatures to bring before the U.S. Congressional Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education.
By signing, you are:
Demanding a seat at the table for teachers
Challenging the unchecked power of corporations and NGOs in education
Supporting a system led by the people who know what students truly need
This Is Bigger Than Education:
If we don’t act now, we risk losing more than our schools—we risk the future of our democracy. Public education is the foundation of self-governance. Without urgent reform, we are watching that foundation crack beneath us.
We’re not asking to be the only leaders—but we are asking to lead alongside others, to help rebuild a system that actually serves our children.
Join us. Sign. Share. Speak up.
Let teachers lead.
Need more information? Wanna hear actual teachers from all over the country from all sides of the political divide speak up about this subject? Go to The Rebel Teachers Rising Podcast to hear teachers and scholars from all over the country, of every politcal stripe, make our case for this necessary change.