HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT PROTESTS CREATE HEADACHES FOR SOME, HOPE FOR OTHERS
Recent spontaneous and unprecedented high school student protest movements are causing a growing panic among the wealthy investor class who want to convert much of American education from public, democratic control to corporate investor control for their profits. It is showing that high school students are finding their own voice distinct from just joining in with adult protests.
Newark
The Newark Students Union was formed to resist the corporate takeover and charterizing of most of public education in Newark, New Jersey. No matter what excuses are attempted to dismiss this movement, it is real and powerful. Students in Newark are not willing to be widgets produced on an assembly line. They have become the wild card for the carefully laid plans of investors and the corporations they control.
This is a video report of their latest protest that involved over 300 students. Take note that these are very smart, politically astute high school students in a place where no one can argue that these are just brats being put up to this by adults, which has been the oft-repeated criticism.
Their protests began in April and lasted through May of last school year when big plans for transforming Newark to mostly charters were announced after Governor Chris Christie took control of Newark Public Schools and appointed his own superintendent. She immediately laid plans to convert most of Newark’s Public Schools into corporate charter schools. My criticism of this massive corporate charter takeover is in my earlier post HERE, a third post in my series criticizing the misuse of charters at the expense of the poor.
Since long-time education writer Anthony Cody pulled out of foundation-influenced Education Week and started his own independent blog Living in Dialogue, he has reported extensively on these and other student protests.
You may follow and support these students by liking their Facebook page and following them on Twitter @NewarkStudents .
Colorado
The high school student protest movement has expanded in Colorado to include students from several high schools in Jefferson County, a suburban area of Denver.
They walked out of school to protest highly restrictive standards about the teaching of U.S. History imposed by the Jefferson County School Board. It is controlled by a slim hyper-conservative majority. Students correctly see it as being propagandistic and not Life at the Intersections | …of spirit, people, and politics: