Film to explore underfunded public schools

The 2013 documentary "Rise Above the Mark" will be shown at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 24, at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Geneva, 110 S. Second St. in downtown Geneva. The film, narrated by Peter Coyote, was made by the West Lafayette Schools Education Foundation in Indiana.

With elections approaching, it is important to recognize the responsibility of Illinois legislators in deeply underfunding our public schools.

"Rise Above the Mark" features prominent spokesmen for education, including author and Stanford University education professor Linda Darling Hammond, educational policy analyst Diane Ravitch, and Finland's Minister of Education, Pasi Sahlberg, who is a visiting professor at Harvard University's Graduate School of Education and former Director General of CIMO (of the Ministry of Education and Culture) in Helsinki, Finland.

The film is part of the free monthly third-Friday Film programs which are sponsored by the Social Justice Team of the Unitarian Universalist Society of Geneva. The public is encouraged to register at uusg.org/friday-flicks/ to receive email notices of future programs.

For more on the documentary, visit riseabovethemark.com, or follow them at www.facebook.com/riseabovethemark or twitter.com/RiseAboveMark.

For more information on Unitarian Universalist Society of Geneva, visit www.uusg.org.