#EducatingGatesRally June 26th | Seattle Education

#EducatingGatesRally June 26th | Seattle Education:

#EducatingGatesRally June 26th

There’s a lot of issues about governance, whether its school boards or unions, where you want to allow for experimentation, in terms of pay procedures, management procedures, to really prove out new things. As those things start working on behalf of the students, then I believe the majority of teachers and voters will be open-minded to these new approaches. And so we have to take it a step at a time. They have to give us the opportunity for this experimentation. -Bill Gates, 2008.

Our children are not to be experimented on. -Dora Taylor, 2014

Big plans are brewing for a rally and march to the Gates Foundation in protest of Gates’ influence on public education with zero input from parents, students or educators, the real stakeholders in public education.

From the Educating Gates website:

5:00 pm on Thursday, June 26th

 Westlake Center Outdoor Mall

400 Pine St, Seattle, WA 98101 

March to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

500 5th Ave N, Seattle, WA 98109

Should one man’s foundation control public education?

We say NO! We say…
                          Billions of dreams, not billionaires’ dreams
                          Billions of plans, not billionaires’ plans
                          Billions of thoughts, not billionaires’ thoughts
                          Billions of gifts, not billionaires’ gifts…

Fact: The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation use their wealth and power to influence public education policy through non-research based experiments without the consent of professional educators, parents, students, local school boards, or community members.

Fact:  The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation operate in collaboration with the United States Department of Education without consideration of public influence or accountability to the public.

Fact: The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has designed and invested billions of dollars into non-research based experiments for public schools that they do not impose on their own children.

Who are we?

We are the Educating Gates Foundation Coalition started by the Washington Badass Teachers Association, Washington Save Our Schools, and Teachers’ Letters to Bill Gates.  We are working to return democracy to our public schools and communities by building a #StopGatesCoalition Movement. 

Purpose of the #EducatingGatesRally in Seattle on June 26th:

1. Educate and activate the public about our vision of public education.
2. Educate and activate the public about the damaging influence of corporate education reform as promoted and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
3. Expose the hoax of corporate education reform, privatization, Common Core, high stakes tests, and “school choice”.  Identify the real problem and the real solutions.
4. Build a coalition of groups and organizations who want to work with us to become free from the policies imposed by the investments of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
5. To demand that the Gates Foundation stops undermining and destabilizing public schools through their misguided corporate reforms.

What do we demand from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation?

WHEREAS the public school experience for students is increasingly dictated by corporate interests and the monetary influence of this foundation and its creator,

WHEREAS the Washington State Supreme Court has ruled that the legislature failed to amply fund basic education,

WHEREAS educators, parents, voters, and especially students are rendered voiceless and have been denied the opportunity to take part in making decisions that affect their public schools,

WHEREAS the negative impacts of large class sizes and childhood poverty must not continue to be denied in favor of illogical restraints, draconian consequences, and overly simplistic solutions to the highly complex practice of teaching and process of learning,

WHEREAS all students’ learning experiences must not center on preparing for and passing high-stakes tests, but rather curriculum that includes rich experiences in art, music, physical education, history, civics, and vocational training,

THEREFORE, be it resolved that we reject this foundation’s influence in deciding upon the practices and accountability measures for public education in Washington State and all other states in our nation. Further, we proclaim that programs and practices supported by this foundation, such as Common Core State Standards and accompanying standardized testing practices, charter schools, and Teach for America are harmful to children, to the equal availability of high-quality public education for all, and to our country’s democracy.  Support public education, don’t destroy it!

The coalition assembled at this event stands behind this resolution.

Who will be speaking at our event?

Anthony Cody will be a keynote speaker.  Anthony  created a dialogue with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation 2 years ago. Recently he agreed to be our keynote speaker at our #EducatingGatesRally and wrote this blog post:  “What will it take to educate the Gates Foundation?”, asks Anthony.

Anthony writes: Bill Gates has made it clear that this was an experiment from the start. What he did not seem to allow for in his scenario was the possibility that his experiment would not succeed. And there was an impatient imperative in his demands—”They have to give us the opportunity for this experimentation.”

We, the citizens, students, parents, and educators were not asked nor allowed to vote on this. Bill Gates and his allies decided this was needed, and they made it happen, using the levers of power within their control….

The only question remaining is how long Gates and his employees and proxies will remain wedded to their ideas, and continue to push them through their sponsored advocacy, even when these policies have been proven to be ill-founded and unworkable.

Part of the problem with market-driven reform is that when you introduce the opportunity to make money off something like education, you unleash a feedback loop. Companies like the virtual charter chain K12 Inc can make tremendous profits, which they can use to buy off politicians, given our Supreme Court’s “Corporations are people and money is speech” philosophy. There are no systemic brakes on this train. The only way turn this around is for people to organize in large enough numbers, and act together in ways that actively disrupt and derail the operation.

Morna McDermott will also be speaking at our event.   Morna is a co-founder of United Opt Out:  The Movement to End Corporate Education Reform.

How do you sign up to attend the rally?  

• Sign up HERE at the #EducatingGatesRally website!

How else can you stay connected and informed?

• Follow us on Twitter @EducatingGatesF.
• Join our Seattle Flashmob Facebook event!
• Write about how you have been impacted by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation policies and we will post your letter on our blog HERE.

Want to be involved in organizing our event?  Contact us on Facebook or Twitter on the links above!

Do you know other organizations who would like to build a coalition? Share their information with us on the links above!

Want to organize an event in your area?  Share your event with us on the social media links above!
What are we FOR?  YES to:

• Creativity!
• Small Class Sizes!
• Civics! Science!
• Music!
• Art!
• Drama!
• Physical Education!
• Parent Involvement!
• Libraries!
• Counselors!
• Nurses!
• Experienced Teachers!
• Learning Through Play!
• Project Based Learning!
• Learning Support Staff!
• Parent & Educator Voice!
• Adequate Compensation!
• Democratic Governance of Schools!
• Relevant Educator Training!
• Less Testing and More Learning!
• Transparent Decision Making!
• Equitable Funding For Every Child!
• Recognizing Each Student’s Potential!
• Culturally & Developmentally Responsive Curriculum!
• Supporting, not closing struggling schools!
• Fixing POVERTY, not blaming schools!

What are we AGAINST that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation promote for our children, but not for their own children?
NO to:

• Closing schools!
• Over Testing!
• Race To The Top!
• Teach For America!
• Ignoring Poverty, blaming schools!
• Class Size Increases!
• Charter Schools!
• Data-Piracy Sharing!
• Union Busting!
• Narrowing Curriculum!
• Ignoring Parent Voice!
• Value Added Measures!
• Appointed School Boards!
• Privatizing Public Schools!
• Treating Kids As Test Scores!
• Replacing Teachers With Screens!
• For-profit Business Model Policy!
• Tying Funding to Test Scores!
• Outsourcing Education to Private Vendors!
• High Stakes Testing!
• Common Core State Standards!
• Using our children, teachers, and schools for billionaire’s experiments!