Teachers’ Letters to Obama. Parents 4 democratic Schools

Parents 4 democratic Schools

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Raising the Stakes

In a speech to the American Enterprise Institute last week Arne Duncan called for us to adjust to the “new normal” – larger class sizes, fewer resources, elimination of seniority protections. Last Spring our conversation with him went nowhere. We need to up the ante. Writing letters was not enough. A conference call with Duncan himself was not enough. Online teach-ins and roundtable discussions among ourselves were not enough. We need to raise the stakes. We need to show up in person, and raise our voices in the largest numbers we can muster.

One of the first letters I got last year was from Jesse Turner, who wrote about his mother would have him and his siblings walk around in their unheated apartment to stay warm. Jesse walked from Connecticut to Washington, DC, last summer, to protest NCLB and Race to the Top. When he got there, he met with others – and now plans are in the works to return to DC – in much larger numbers.

We are forming an alliance with other groups to mobilize the largest number of teachers possible for a march and conference in Washington, DC, from July 28 to 31. Please visit the discussion forum at Teachers’ Letters to Obama and share your thoughts and ideas as we begin to get ourselves organized.http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=166176941518&v=app_2373072738&ref=ts

Anthony Cody