Washington, D.C., February 17, 2013 — The United States Library of Congress announced that it has selected United Opt Out National for inclusion in its Public Policy web archival collection. United Opt Out National is a grass roots education advocacy organization dedicated to preserving public education as an institution that is equitable, available to all children, and free of corporate influence and interference.
Peggy Robertson, administrator for United Opt Out National, states, “It is an honor to be included in the Library of Congress historic collection. “It is very difficult to be heard in these hard times, unless you are a corporation or a politician. Those of us who work on the front lines of public education know far better what is happening in our public schools, yet our voices are silenced at every turn. Meanwhile, the corporations continue to take our public tax dollars to privatize public education, segregate public schools and standardize public school children, while stripping our schools of resources – most often in our neediest schools. United Opt Out National has used social media to educate the public and also provide resources to citizens who wish to preserve and improve public schools. We are grateful to have our resources shared in the archives of the Library of Congress so that our truths may now reach a larger audience, thereby increasing our ability to save public schools, the cornerstone of our democracy.”
The Library of Congress (LOC), through its web archive project, collects digital information and preserves it for future generations of researchers. Unlike other automated archival programs, The LOC uses Recommending Officers to evaluate individual sites for potential future historical significance and inclusion in their archival project. Those ultimately chosen must rank high in the following: usefulness in serving the current or future informational needs of Congress and researchers, unique information provided, scholarly content, at risk of loss (due to ephemeral nature of web sites), and currency of the information.
As part of its ongoing advocacy campaign, United Opt Out National will host
Occupy DOE 2.0: The Battle for Public Schools, a four day rally/protest taking place on the grounds of the US Department of Education in Washington, DC from April 4-7, 2013. A march to the White House is scheduled for April 6
th.
The event marks the second time that the organization has hosted a national rally at the Department of Education. The first event, held in 2012, included participants from both the east and west coasts and received international press coverage.
This year’s event, Occupy DOE 2.0: The Battle for Public Schools, is designed to raise public awareness of the destructive influences of corporate and for-profit education reforms, which began in previous administrations and persist with the current one and call for an end to the policies that threaten to dismantle America’s system of public education. These threats include the erosion of the teaching profession, excessive use of standardized testing, mandated scripted curriculum, the absolute disregard of child poverty, and reforms which disproportionately impact minority communities.
Participating in the event will be a variety of renowned public school advocates including Diane Ravitch, Nancy Carlsson-Paige, Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis, Stephen Krashen, Brian Jones, and Deborah Meier, as well as students, teachers and community members from all across the country.
About United Opt Out National:
UOO’s is a grassroots based, nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving, protecting, and strengthening our public educational system. Its focus is on revealing and fighting corporate based reforms that threaten the concept and existence of an educational system that is publicly-funded, quality in nature, and available to all. In particular, United Opt Out National seeks to end the practice of punitive, high-stakes testing and related activities that are fraudulently being used as “proof” of the incompetence of educators and our public education system.
For more information about the organization or Occupy DOE 2.0: The Battle for Public Schools, or to schedule interviews with the Administrators of United Opt Out National, please contact Peggy Robertson at (720) 810-5593 or via email at
writepeg@juno.com.
With that being said, we would like to correct ourselves for erroneously reporting on February 2, 2013that Bronx Community Charter will be co-locating at PS 154 come next September. We are vetting our source as of this posting to see if the information was just a mistake or was deliberate misinformation. While we do not wish to see a school be co-located in 154, we were somewhat glad that BxC was somewhat 
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