Wed 3/3 - Picket Boston School Committee for FULL FUNDING OF BOSTON'SPUBLIC SCHOOLS - Equal Quality Public Education!
Peter Cook
Take
Action to Demand Equal Quality Public
Education!
FULL Funding for
Boston’s Public
Schools!
Stop the
Corporate Takeover of Education!
Money for
Education NOT for War & Wall St.!
Wednesday,
March 3
5:30
pm - Press Conf./Picketline
School Committee, 26 Court St., Boston
for more
information: Coalition for Equal Quality Education
equaluquali...@gmail.com ● www.equalqualityeducation.com
Across the country, students,
teachers, faculty and other workers, along with concerned parents, community
activists and organizations, will be using the week of March 4 to strike
decisively to defend public education and the right to pursue higher learning.
Here in Boston
the Coalition for Equal Quality Education (CEQE) has chosen Wednesday, March 3rd
to initiate a campaign against budget cuts and charter schools. This date was
chosen to to coincide with a regularly scheduled Boston School Committee
meeting. CEQE has endorsed the March 4 National Day of Actions to Defend
Education.
Over the next several weeks CEQE will be organizing protests
at Boston School Committee budget hearings culminating with a major protest on
March 24th when the School Committee is scheduled to vote on next years budget.
Boston Public Schools are now facing more budget cuts and layoffs. Heat is being
turned down, teachers and staff are being laid off, educational programs are
being cut, and at least 2 schools will be closed. Safe, reliable transportation
of BPS students is once again being threatened with budget cuts. Supt. Johnson
is planning to reintroduce the same 5-Zone Plan that was defeated last spring.
This plan will lead to the further re-segregation of public education and limit
choices for parents & students.
At the same time that funding for
public education is being slashed the state legislature recently passed
legislation to allow for the creation of more charter schools. Charter schools
are publicly & privately funded corporations (The Bradley Foundation,
Entertainment Properties Trust, & Wall St. investment banks to mention a
few) whose purpose is to make a profit off of the education of our youth while
robbing public education of badly needed funding & resources. Contrary to
the claims by charter proponents charter schools will not eliminate the
opportunities to learn (achievement) gap. In fact, charter schools do not
provide adequate services for ELL and Special Education students. According to
the Massachusetts Teachers Association 19% of BPS students are ELL as compared
to 2% for charters. In contrast, Boston Public Schools are required to educate
every student that walks through the door. Students who don’t fit the charter
profile due to low grades or other challenges will be forced to leave charter
schools and return to an even more underfunded & under-resourced BPS. In
short, the proposed budget cuts and the expansion of charters creates a
two-tier, separate & unequal education system: one that is highly funded for
students who fit the charter profile & the other severly underfunded for
everyone else.
The effects of the economic crisis have been felt in all
sectors. Hundreds of thousands have faced having their homes foreclosed on or
being evicted. Millions have lost their jobs and have added to the ranks of
unemployed, especially people of color. Many families face hunger on a daily
basis.
The crisis has not abated but continues like a storm. Federal,
state and local governments are now cutting back on vital social services;
closing schools; defunding education, health care and other needs; and laying
off more workers.
There has been an accelerated push to privatize public
education under the guise of “school choice,” using the crumbling infrastructure
of inner city schools as an excuse. This crumbling is due to decades of systemic
underfunding.
Parents and their children are wooed by for-profit and even
nonprofit charter schools as a way out. But the charter schools offer a clear
and present danger to teachers’ unions and are not bound to provide English as a
Second Language or special education services. Charters can be granted to
companies or a group of individuals who ultimately select the students and
control the curriculum and budget.
Besides the above, corporations and
financial institutions would like to get their hands on the $800 billion a year
spent on education.
The Obama administration has contributed to the race
to privatize public education. It has dangled $4 billion in front of strapped
state governments to compete for by devising a new plan for education. This
“Race to the Top” program calls not only for diminishing or eliminating
altogether the cap on charter schools, but also calls for the tying of teacher
pay to performance, opening the door for the firing of teachers at
“underperforming schools.” Just this past week, the school committee in
Central Falls, Rhode
Island voted to fire every educator at Central Falls High School at the end of the school
year. This anti-union attack on the hard won rights of teachers was applauded
by Education Secretary Arne Duncan.
The state budget crisis, which grew
out of the general economic crisis, has provided state governments across the
country a pretext for further attacks on public education. As of December, 36
states have made higher education budget cuts, resulting in tuition increases
and reductions in faculty and staff. Twenty-seven states and the District of Columbia have
cut aid to K-12 schools. Additional cuts across states are expected to be
widespread in 2010.
In this climate of severe and relentless education
cuts, the protests that will take place in conjunction with March 4 is just the
beginning of a movement to unite students, educators and other workers against
the attacks on public education. As the struggle continues to grow post-March
4, it will be critical to link together the movements for jobs and education
with the movement to stop the wars and occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
For more
information on the March 4 National Day of Actions to Defend
Education:
- Visit the Web site for more details at http://www.defendeducation.org.
- Endorse the call by sending an email to march4nation...@gmail.com
for more information or to get involved please email: equalquali...@gmail.com