Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Helen Gym -- Honored at White House as Champion of Change

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Helen Gym -- Honored at White House as Champion of Change:

Helen Gym -- Honored at White House as Champion of Change

Gym is being honored by the White House next week. (ALEJANDRO A. ALVAREZ / Staff Photographer) 
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/school_files/Helen-Gym-to-be-honored-by-White-House.html#gOH8brjFTEKd7MVE.99

CONGRATULATIONS to Philly public school activist and parent leader Helen Gym who will be honored at the White House next week. Gym has been named a Chesar Chavez Champion of Change - one of 10 community leaders nationally who have "committed themselves to improving the lives of others in their communities and across the country," people who "represent the values and steadfast determination of Cesar Chavez to organize ourselves for a more just tomorrow."

Gym and the other Champions will participate in a discussion about how to expand opportunities for all Americans, according to a White House news release. The event, scheduled for 10 a.m. Monday, can be streamed live at www.whitehouse.gov/live.

Knowing Helen, I'm sure she will have plenty to say about Philly's mass school closings, privately-run charters and testing madness. In fact, she already has.

We’ve burned through countless dollars chasing after the obsessions and frivolities of this so called “education reform” movement – expensive consultancies, high stakes testing, new standards and curricula, Renaissance schools. We’ve become so obsessed with the structure and management of education that we’ve completely forgotten about the substance and practice of it. -- Washington Post interview

You can follow Helen Gym on Twitter at @ParentsUnitedPA

"The best way to hold down property taxes is to get school districts