On December 13, 2012 the School District of Philadelphia recommended 37 schools for closure. There were impassioned pleas and hard-worked proposals. There were well-written reports of community input. There was anger. There were tears. There were rallies, chants and marches. There was organization, mobilization and solidarity. And then the School Reform Commission voted to close 23 schools. They voted against our children. Against their safety. Against their education. Against their future. So what do we do now as parents and a concerned community? How do we impact this bureaucracy that is called the School District of Philadelphia? How do we impede this assault on our children’s future?
We rebel. We no longer accept what is handed to us. We “do not go gentle into that good night”.
1 We fight “against the dying of the light”.
1 Our children need us to continue to stand and fight for them. We need to protect them because the School Reform Commission has chosen to abandon them. We need to pick up all our marbles and refuse to play if we can’t play together. But, how do we?
We opt-out of the PSSA.
I have chosen to exercise my option to have my daughter excused from the state’s two-week long, one-size-
