For more than a dozen years a top officer or staff member of affiliates of the National Education Assn (NEA), the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), and the American Assn of University Professors (AAUP), he is a life member of the NEA, NEA-Retired, the PA State Education Assn (PSEA), PSEA-Retired, and the PA Assn of School Retirees (PASR). Co-founder, 1997, and first National Chairman, 1997-98, of Parents in Control (P-I-C), his current memberships include the Assn of Educators in Private Practice (AEPP), The American Assn of Educators (AAE), and the National Retired Teachers Assn Division of the American Assn of Retired Persons (NRTA-AARP).

A retired public educator, he was an Easton (PA) Area School District high school history teacher and district social studies department chairman; and president of the Easton Area and Pennsylvania State Education Associations. He was a Distinguished Fellow with the Blum Center for Parental Freedom in Education, Marquette University, Milwaukee, from 1995 until the Center closed at the end of July 1999 and a Senior Fellow with the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy, Pittsburgh, 1998-2000.

He has been a consultant or staff member in Pennsylvania to a Governor, an Auditor General, the Senate Education Committee, the Senate Agricultural & Rural Affairs Committee, the State Department of Education, the State Board of Education, the Pennsylvania Association of Intermediate Units (PAIU), and Executive Director of the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties (APSCUF), the Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small Schools (PARSS) and the REACH Alliance, a Pennsylvania school choice advocacy group.

Founder of the PA Rural Coalition in 1980, he chaired it for first two years and created its newsletter, Pennsylvania Rural Forum. The Coalition grew to more than 100 organizations as members, plus individuals. In 1982 he prepared a paper on rural Pennsylvania that was adapted by the Democratic Caucus of the House of Representatives as a position paper, a first in the state's 300-year history.

Long an advocate of school choice and other education reforms, his publications include Choice in Schooling, Loyola University of Chicago Press, 1990; School Choice: The Idea That Will Not Die, Mesa, AZ: Blue Bird Publishing, 1997; School Choice, 32p, for the Milton Friedman Foundation, 1997; Alternative Teacher Organizations, 36p for the Reason Foundation, 1997; two chapters - "The Educational Choice Movement in Pennsylvania," and "Magnet Schools/Charter Schools," in Educational Innovation, the Commonwealth Foundation, Harrisburg, PA, 1994; a Master Plan for Higher Education for the Pa. State Board of Education, 1978; education Issue Briefs for the Commonwealth Foundation, from 1992-1998; newsletters for the Blum Center, the Kentucky League for Educational Alternatives, the REACH Alliance and PARSS, among others. His long career in radio and television included being Executive Producer/Researcher/Writer/Moderator for a series of more than 500 public television programs, "The Public Sector," and a 15-part "History of the Lehigh Valley." Many of his writings are featured on this website.

Holder of a B.S. in Ed. from the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (formerly North Adams State College); an M.A. in History from Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA; he was a William Robertson Coe Fellow at Stanford University, Palo Alto, California and will be listed in the Millenium Edition, 2000, of Who's Who in America, The latest in a long series of such listings, beginning with Who's Who Among College Students, in 1959.

Last Updated 03/12/00
Copyright 1999, 2000, 2001 David W. Kirkpatrick
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Phone: (610) 689-0633