Susan Kane, Editor-in-Chief, Parenting magazine

In Newport, PA, Cheryl Capozzi was used to seeing her kids reading torn, stained, taped-together old books from their school library. But when her first-grader brought home a mold-covered book falling out of its binding, she decided to do something. Taking the tattered old book to the school superintendent, she demanded to know why their school library was in such poor condition. And when he told her that the district budget simply didn’t have the money to fund the resources that her school library needed, she took action, organizing her school’s first-ever book drive. The result? 1,000 new books, and enough money to supply the cash-strapped school with funds to purchase even more new titles.

In Spokane, WA, two similarly-frustrated moms took up the cause of school libraries in their state. Their tireless efforts led to the passing of an education reform bill with a permanent line item for school library materials and funding for a certified media specialist in every Washington school by 2018.

Sound familiar? When my staff and I were preparing to launch the new School Years edition of Parenting magazine last year, we became so inspired by moms like Cheryl and the “Washington Moms” – stories of amazing parents who have accomplished so much in the fight to protect our educational resources from budget cuts and improve our nation’s schools. To celebrate their achievements and connect them with other mom education advocates across the country, Parenting launched the “Mom Congress on Education and Learning” initiative for better schools last March – and we have since grown our membership to over 13,000 passionate moms across the country.

This May, we’re bringing Mom Congress to life! Parenting will be selecting one outstanding mom education advocate from every state and the District of Columbia to attend the first annual Mom Congress on Education and Learning conference at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. May 2-4, 2010. Participants will receive round-trip airfare, a two-night hotel stay, and the opportunity to connect with other moms from across the country to share success stories, challenges, and concerns as they work to improve our nation’s schools.

We’re honored to have MomsRising founder Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner on the advisory board for Mom Congress, where she’s been able to inspire our members with words of wisdom and support from the efforts of the powerful moms who have united on this site to fight for policy changes to improve the lives of our nation’s families. So we know that there’s no better place than MomsRising.org to begin the Mom Congress search for outstanding mom advocates from every state! Have you devoted countless hours of your time talking with teachers and other school officials to help make your school as good as it can be? Do you know a mom who stood up to school policy when it didn’t make sense for families? If you’ve taken your passion for positive change to your school principal or district, we want to hear from you!

The 51 mom delegates selected to attend the conference this May will work with Mom Congress advisory board members and faculty from Georgetown University’s School of Continuing Studies on the creation of Parenting’s “Lesson Plan for Change”, a guide to help empower parents nationwide to get more involved in their children’s education, which will appear in Parenting School Years this fall.

To nominate yourself or a mom you know who has made a difference, visit www.parenting.com/momcongress. The deadline for applications is March 15, 2010. We look forward to hearing from you!