Now THAT is what a Day of Action looks like! | National Opportunity to Learn Campaign | Education Reform for Equity and Opportunity

Now THAT is what a Day of Action looks like! | National Opportunity to Learn Campaign | Education Reform for Equity and Opportunity:

Now THAT is what a Day of Action looks like!

Posted on: Tuesday December 10th, 2013

THANK YOU for an Exciting National Day of Action!Recap, photos, media stories & petition link

To all the parents, students, teachers and community organizers who turned out across the nation for Monday's National Day of Action to Reclaim the Promise of Public Education:

Thank you!

The nationwide event was a huge success, with local actions taking place in over 60 cities.

Missed the Day of Action?
Sign on to the Principles
That Unite Us!

In Chicago, you sang education-themed carols and delivered a wish list of needed school resources to city officials. In Boston, you held a student-led town hall to discuss the future of the city's public schools. InNew York City, you rallied for universal pre-k. In Philadelphia, you marched to Gov. Tom Corbett's office. In San Francisco you held a candlelight rally.

So far we have collected over 120 press hits (and counting!) – click here to view them.

Together we stood as a unified voice calling for a new direction in education reform to end inequities and ensure every child and every school has what they need to succeed. The Day of Action was a first step in our efforts to build this new coalition after our exciting October conference in Los Angeles.

As our efforts continue in the coming months, you can keep the conversation going on Twitter and Facebook with hashtag #ReclaimPublicEd. (Scroll down for some Twitter highlights from Monday!)

You can also sign on to the Principles That Unite Us and add your name to this petition to ask your representatives to endorse the Principles.

We will be posting Day of Action pictures on the OTL Campaign Facebook page soon, so please like us on Facebook to get our updates!

Visit www.ReclaimPublicEdNow.org for more highlights. 
Tell your representatives to endorse the Principles That Unite Us here!

Day Of Action Reveals Widespread Anger With Current Education Policies

By Jeff Bryant

“A Day of Action to Reclaim the Promise of Public Education held on December 9 in over 100 sites across the country… took on many forms … but there were common grievances overlapping the events … The wide range of locations for Monday’s events, and the numbers of participants, are testament to the breadth and depth of complaints about current education policies.”
Read more …

NEWS AND VIEWS

Sequester Cuts Hit Hardest Students And Schools That Can Least Afford The Cost

National Education Association

“The across-the-board sequester cuts are not only hurting students and schools, but the cuts are falling unevenly and disproportionately hitting those who can least afford the loss… Students could expect more than $5.5 billion in additional education funding if the sequester was replaced … 1 out of every 6 students attends public schools in a district where 5%-15% of total revenue is from federal Title I funding … 1 out of every 10 school districts rely on federal funding for 20%-50% (or more) of their total revenue.”
Read more …

Zero-Tolerance Policies In Schools Are Often Destructive, Fueling A School To Prison Pipeline

Alternet

“In recognition of the mounting evidence against zero-tolerance policies and the increasing outcry to radically rethink disciplinary policies, school districts in several parts of the country are now dropping or radically modifying their zero-tolerance policies … Students are attending counseling, completing community service, and going to behavior intervention programs when they commit behavioral infractions, rather than being sent to court … Giving these students more control, autonomy and responsibility … encourages them to take a more active role in the school community, and in turn, that’s creating better behaviors … and leading to a drop in disciplinary problems.”
Read more …

The Third-Grade Crackdown Club

Education Week

Former Michigan Teacher of the Year Nancy Flanagan, writes, “Florida and NY City passed legislation mandating retention of third graders who haven’t achieved an equally arbitrary reading level – with unimpressive results. In at least 13 more states, including my own, policy-makers are now eager to join the Third Grade Crackdown club … Sorting students by age, standardizing their curriculum and rank-ordering their achievement has been embedded American education practice for well over a century… ‘Grade level’ expectations vary widely … They, too, are arbitrary … Although it’s rare, there are cases where retention is the right decision. But that call should be made by teachers and parents, not at the statehouse.”
Read more …

School Counselors Increasingly Are Missing Link In Getting Kids To College

The Hechinger Report

“A single public school counselor in the United States has a caseload of 471 students, on average … In high schools, where counselors are often the primary source of information about college … each one is responsible for an average of 239 students … Budget cuts are forcing counselors to perform more duties unrelated to their traditional roles … Most get scant training in the subject before taking on the job … The result is an overtaxed system in which many students fall through the cracks and either never go to college, go to institutions that are the wrong matches for them, or never learn about financial aid for which they may qualify … Counselors in private schools have a median caseload of only 106..”
Read more …

How ‘Limited Government’ Is Burying A Generation In Debt

Moyers and Company

“The cost of tuition in this country has increased at an almost unbelievable pace over the past generation … While tuitions are rising across the board, the cost drivers are different in public and private institutions … Much more of the growth in private school tuition pays for administrators’ bloated salaries … Americans pay more than three times the average of other rich countries for ‘tertiary education’ out-of-pocket, financed through the private sector … Our disproportionate reliance on private sector higher education, with its bloated administrative spending, has a lot to do with the exorbitant costs American students and their families pay … It’s a huge ripoff and it’s hurting the prospects of an entire generation of Americans.”
Read more …