Defend Public Education leaflet

[John Kirkland]

Defend public education!

Stop privatization and budget cuts!

The rich created this crisis; make them pay for it!

Free education for all, kindergarten through university!

 

http://phillyworkersvoice.wordpress.com/2012/05/15/defend-public-education-philly-sa-leaflet/

 

A Socialsit Action leaflet --attached as a pdf- print and give to a friend.)

 

Philadelphia public schools are under attack, with the threatened closing of 40 schools next year and an additional 27 schools over the next five years. The City and the SRC (School Reform Commission) blame the fiscal crisis and the teachers' union for the crisis. The truth is that Philadelphia’s "education crisis" has been trumped up to destroy and privatize the public schools — one of the unique gains that working people have won over the past decades.

 

This attack on public education is not just happening here but in cities across the U.S. The assault is part of a broader attack on working people in the U.S. and internationally. The richest 1 percent seek to concentrate as much wealth in their hands as possible and are using the pretext of the economic crisis they created to break unions and balance the cost of recovery on the backs of workers and the oppressed.

 

Kids need safe, clean buildings and smaller class sizes. They need up-to-date books and equipment. But the rich are unwilling to pay for these things. In upscale suburban districts, kids get a quality education in clean and safe buildings with roofs that don't leak — why can’t working people get the same? Instead, the school privatizers are channeling city students into for-profit, non-union charter schools, and are cheered on by politicians of both the Republican and Democratic parties.

The rich and their political servants in both parties say there's no money for public education, but that's a lie. The small country of Cuba, the victim of U.S. blockades and attacks for more than 50 years, and with limited resources, offers free education to all through college. If Cuba can do it, why can't we?

 

What to do next

 

Now is the time to organize a broad, inclusive movement of students, parents, and the community to defend public schools and to defend teachers’ right to a decent living. We oppose school privatization and charters. We demand the reconstruction of our schools and fully funded education. We demand real community control of schools—with parents, students, and teachers calling the shots through an elected school board. 

 

A massive mobilization of community and labor is key to success. This was the lesson of the struggle in Wisconsin against the union-busting Governor Walker before the movement got channeled into lobbying and electoralism. This was also the central lesson of the movement against the Vietnam War — mass action gets results.

 

We say: tax the rich and the large corporations. Stop the wars overseas and spend the money here to fund quality public schools and colleges that are free for all.