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Thursday, August 18, 2011

NYC Public School Parents: Last night's PEP meeting on Verizon contract and its "Norma Rae" moment

NYC Public School Parents: Last night's PEP meeting on Verizon contract and its "Norma Rae" moment

Last night's PEP meeting on Verizon contract and its "Norma Rae" moment

Last night's meeting of the Panel for Educational Policy meeting was exhilarating, stirring, and depressing all at once. Over a thousand parents, teachers, and striking Verizon workers showed up for the pre-meeting rally, and hundreds more filled the auditorium afterwards at Murry Bergtraum HS, chanting, booing Walcott and the DOE, and speaking up passionately for the need for more caring education priorities, and against the $120 million Verizon contract, which will steal even more resources from our children and the company's workers.

This contract had at least five strikes against it, each of which would have convinced any individual with a conscience to oppose it, but was nevertheless rubber-stamped by the eight mayoral appointees (known collectively as the Panel of Eight Puppets) plus the Staten Island rep, with the four other borough reps all voting