Join the U.S. Secretary of Education's Online Town Hall Tonight

If you're a parent of a schoolkid in the United States and have concerns about anything related to the public schools in the country, tonight you have a chance to really do something about it. From 8:00pm to 9:00pm Eastern tonight, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will be conducting a national "town hall" meeting.

Titled "America Goes Back to School," the town hall meeting is intended to focus on the following topics (among others), copied from the Department of Education website:

• What is working and what needs to change in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act?
• What do we need to do, and what do we need to do differently to ensure our students are successful?
• What does a quality school look like and how can more schools become consistently high achieving?
• How can parents become more involved with and engaged in their child’s education?
• What are some effective practices for recruiting, retaining, supporting and compensating highly effective teachers?
• What steps are schools at all levels of education taking to ensure a safe and healthy learning environment?

(The "Elementary and Secondary Education Act" referenced in the first question was first passed in 1965 and has been reauthorized several times since, most recently and famously by the "No Child Left Behind" Act of 2001.)

If you'd like to watch the town hall, you can watch the webcast or find a list of ways to watch on TV here. If you'd like to participate, you can leave a comment on the Department of Education blog post about it, or, during the show, you will be able to email or call with questions (to an address or phone number that will be displayed at that time).

I will be at the live broadcast of the town hall, so please also check back here on GeekDad for my article later this week covering the event.