National Day of Action set for Dec. 9
Public education is under assault, and decades of top-down edicts, mass school closures, privatization, and test fixation with sanctions instead of support haven't moved the needle in the right direction.
It's time to reclaim the promise of public education—not as it is today or as it was in the past, but as it can be—to fulfill our collective obligation to help all children succeed. Together, we will ensure that all children have the opportunity to dream their dreams and achieve them. We will put the public back into public education. We will help our public schools become centers of their communities, secure a voice and respect for those closest to the classroom, and fulfill public education’s purpose as a propeller of our economy, an anchor of democracy and a gateway to racial, social and economic justice.
Join the effort now!
AFT affiliates and their community partners are gearing up for a Dec. 9 National Day of Action to Reclaim the Promise of Public Education. In cities across the country, educators, parents, students, faith leaders, community activists and others will be coming together to push for reforms designed to reclaim the promise of public education as our nation's gateway to democracy and racial and economic justice.
Over the last year, community groups and teachers unions have taken unprecedented steps to forge an alliance to work together to highlight effective, research-based education reforms and advocate on behalf of public schools and the children who attend them.
Together, we have developed "The Principles that Unite Us" as our common vision for public education. It stands in sharp contrast to the corporate agenda for public schools, which disregards our voices and attempts to impose a system of winners and losers. More than 100 community groups and unions have already endorsed the principles.
The National Day of Action—coordinated public actions organized by community and union partners in cities across the country—is the first step in coordinating and amplifying our voices, to be followed by multicity and multistate campaigns and larger actions in the spring.
Dec. 9 activities will include highlighting the negative impact of the corporate agenda on students, schools and communities, and recruiting additional supporters to endorse "The Principles that Unite Us."
Dec. 9 activities will include highlighting the negative impact of the corporate agenda on students, schools and communities, and recruiting additional supporters to endorse "The Principles that Unite Us."
In addition to the AFT, national organizations sponsoring the National Day of Action include the Alliance for Educational Justice, the Annenberg Institute for School Reform, the Gamaliel Network, the Journey for Justice Alliance, the Leadership Center for the Common Good, the National Education Association, National Opportunity to Learn Campaign and the Service Employees International Union.
[Roger Glass]
November 8, 2013