Dear Citizen:

Thank you for your interest in America Goes Back to School 1998. This annual effort focuses attention on improving education across America during the back-to-school months of August through October and rallies individuals to volunteer in their communities and be involved in learning throughout the year. Schools can't do it alone. Parents, grandparents, community leaders, representatives from colleges and universities, employers and employees, members of the arts community, religious leaders, and caring adults are great resources to improve our schools.

America Goes Back to School gives you an opportunity to build awareness and support to improve your schools at a time when interest in education is already high. Take advantage of this opportunity to launch a new partnership or to encourage people to get involved in an existing partnership.

Don't hesitate to talk about what your community can do to improve education. You can enlist your local leaders and the news media to help more people learn about what they can do to help children learn and how they can get involved.

I invite you to organize a local America Goes Back to School event. Events that kick off the school year in a positive, exciting way can set the tone for the entire year, and they can lead to year-round partnerships and improvement efforts. This kit gives you some tools to help families and community members become more aware of, connected to, and involved in education.

Along with the Partnership for Family Involvement in Education, which sponsors America Goes Back to School each year, I want to thank you for your interest in family and community involvement in education. This is an extraordinary time for our nation's schools, and I ask all Americans to pitch in. After all, better education is everybody's business.

Yours sincerely,

Richard W. Riley
U.S. Secretary of Education