h3. Remarks prepared for delivery at Ann Arbor rally on Michigan budget issues, Forsythe Middle School, 15 March 2011
*Steven J. Norton, AAPS parent and Executive Director, Michigan Parents for Schools*
The weather outside reminds me that our schools are surely our best shelter from the storm we face. A place of safety. A lifeboat, if you will. But for how much longer?
My name is Steve Norton, and I am a parent of two wonderful young kids in the Ann Arbor Public Schools. I'm also an advocate for public education in Michigan, and I was asked to provide the parent perspective today.
But the kind of education I'd like to speak about goes beyond multiplying fractions or constructing an organized paragraph. It has to do with teaching my children about the importance of living as part of a community, of treating every person with respect, and of working with your neighbors to make the community work for everyone. I fear that many of our leaders today in Lansing are offering a very different lesson, and that's why I'm speaking out here today.