Sad to see the economic crunch hitting our friends in AERO. We wish them every success in seeing this temporary funding gap through to a successful conclusion.
Dear Friends & Supporters:
For twenty years, AERO has been a major networker and promoter of learner-centered educational alternatives. It has always been a shoestring operation, with almost everything going toward our mission. But we, too, are now suffering in these bad economic times.
Over the years our deficit has been made up by grants from three foundations and donations from our members. This year we did not receive one of the major grants we were expecting. We have scrambled to find other sources of support but we have fallen quite short. If we can make it a few more months we expect that we will be getting more foundation support and we’ll be okay. In the interim, we need to make up a deficit of about $20,000. When you consider the hundreds of schools around the world that we have helped, or even helped to found, this does not seem like too much. But the reality is that AERO’s support and even our existence is taken too much for granted by many of our members and former members. They think we’ll be here when they need us.
We have not had a major fund raising campaign for several years. We are having one now, and the need is urgent. We need your donations so we can keep our staff working, our bookstore going, continue printing Education Revolution Magazine, continue our online courses, producing our free e-newsletter, updating our website, and so we can organize yet another AERO conference this summer (you’ve probably heard that John Taylor Gatto and Herbert Kohl will be two of the keynoters!).
If you think that AERO has been of some help to you in the past twenty years, or perhaps will be in the future, if you believe in learner-centered and democratic education that really empowers students, if you share our goal of a true Education Revolution, donate to the AERO survival fund so we can be around for a lot longer.
Sincerely,
Jerry Mintz
Executive Director
Make a donation online at www.educationrevolution.org/survivalfund.html
Even if you can’t make a significant donation to AERO now, please forward this message along to any friends, family, and colleagues you may have who believe in learner-centered education.
