Latest News and Comment from Education

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Event in DC This Friday…Like, Tomorrow | Mr. Teachbad #OWS

Event in DC This Friday…Like, Tomorrow | Mr. Teachbad:

Event in DC This Friday…Like, Tomorrow

Hi, Every­body–

There is an Occupy event being held tomor­row at McPher­son Square, just behind the White House, at 15th and K St. NW. Easy to get to on the Blue and Orange line down­town. This is for edu­ca­tors and peo­ple who care about what they do.

I’ll be there and hope to see some of you.

Here are the details:

We teach the 99%! Stand up for pub­lic edu­ca­tion in DC!
Grade-in and Speak out
McPher­son Square | 15th & K Sts NW
Fri­day, Nov. 18, 2011 — 4:30pm

—————

From New York to Seat­tle, teach­ers have joined the Occupy move­ment to stand up for pub­lic edu­ca­tion. The rea­sons should be clear: from high-stakes test­ing to merit pay; from school clos­ings to pri­va­ti­za­tion; from the rou­tine dis­re­spect of edu­ca­tors to the bash­ing of teach­ers unions – the 1% have car­ried out an ugly and vicious assault on pub­lic education.

Dur­ing the years of Michelle Rhee, DCPS teach­ers were ground zero of this assault. These days, Chan­cel­lor Kaya Hen­der­son embod­ies all of Rhee’s poli­cies – with a (some­what?) friend­lier face. Once again, school clos­ings loom on the hori­zon. Lay­offs and excess­ing per­sist. The gru­el­ing nature of the IMPACT eval­u­a­tion sys­tem eats away at the morale of both sea­soned vet­er­ans and promis­ing young teach­ers. Worse yet, the prospects for many of the amaz­ing and tal­ented stu­dents that we teach are bleaker than ever – as even those who make it to col­lege are likely to be sad­dled by moun­tains of debt and to face grow­ing unemployment.

Occupy DC in McPher­son Square is the place to high­light these issues. For over 6 weeks, activists have occu­pied the square and have held inspir­ing teach-ins and actions chal­leng­ing cor­po­rate greed. Join us as DCPS teach­ers gather for a grade-in, speak­out and march on Fri­day, Novem­ber 18 at 4:30pm.

For more info on Occupy DC visit www.occupydc.org