This Week in Education Organizing - Jan. 29, 2016
The Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools Newsletter
January 29, 2016
Welcome to our January 29 newsletter! As always, share the latest stories from your city or state with us on Twitter and Facebook. Don't forget to tell your friends and colleagues to sign up for our newsletterhere.
More than 100 schools in Milwaukee will
join the national walk-ins on Feb. 17!
Picture via @NoMPSTakeover.
NATIONWIDE WALK-INS ON FEB. 17
Organizers in 30 cities are gearing up for the first-ever nationally coordinated Walk-Ins for the Schools All Our Children Deserve. On February 17, parents, teachers and students across the country will participate in "walk-ins" in more than 800 schools!
Organizers in 30 cities are gearing up for the first-ever nationally coordinated Walk-Ins for the Schools All Our Children Deserve. On February 17, parents, teachers and students across the country will participate in "walk-ins" in more than 800 schools!
Want to get your school or district involved? The Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools has developed a toolkit of materials to support walk-in organizers, including posters and a shareable social media graphic. For some inspiration, check out how United Teachers Los Angeles is promoting their walk-in event here. Also, our friends in Milwaukee have been sharing some school-specific sign up forms and promotional pictures like the one above over social media.
AROS will be hosting a webinar on February 4 focused on social media and messaging tactics. If you’re interested in attending the webinar, please email Ldingerson@gmail.com.
We'll be using #ReclaimOurSchools to share updates and pictures on Twitter and Facebook - so stay tuned and we hope to see you on Feb. 17!
TAKING ON TAKEOVERS
Education Week published a powerful op-ed this week highlighting the failure of state takeovers as a reform option for struggling schools. In the column, Kent McGuire and Katherine Dunn of the Southern Education Foundation (SEF) and Kate Shaw and Adam Schott of Research for Action tease out school funding inequities as one of the major forces undermining public schools. Both a recent report from SEF and the Annenberg Institute for School Reform as well as another report by the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools have shown that state take-overs aren't an effective reform strategy. Instead, the op-ed authors argue for fixing funding inequities and pursuing the community school model, which provides wraparound academic, social and health supports for students and their families. Read the op-ed here.
Education Week published a powerful op-ed this week highlighting the failure of state takeovers as a reform option for struggling schools. In the column, Kent McGuire and Katherine Dunn of the Southern Education Foundation (SEF) and Kate Shaw and Adam Schott of Research for Action tease out school funding inequities as one of the major forces undermining public schools. Both a recent report from SEF and the Annenberg Institute for School Reform as well as another report by the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools have shown that state take-overs aren't an effective reform strategy. Instead, the op-ed authors argue for fixing funding inequities and pursuing the community school model, which provides wraparound academic, social and health supports for students and their families. Read the op-ed here.
THE STATE OF NEW YORK SCHOOLS
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's proposed state budget is "woefully inadequate" when it comes to education funding. Analyzing the governor's State of the State Address, the Alliance for Quality Education finds that Cuomo's proposal falls almost $2 billion short of what the state's public schools need and it underinvests in the expansion of pre-k and community schools. The governor's budget also promotes a tax credit that would use state money to reimburse wealthy donors for their contributions to private schools. Read AQE's press release here and their budget analysis here.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's proposed state budget is "woefully inadequate" when it comes to education funding. Analyzing the governor's State of the State Address, the Alliance for Quality Education finds that Cuomo's proposal falls almost $2 billion short of what the state's public schools need and it underinvests in the expansion of pre-k and community schools. The governor's budget also promotes a tax credit that would use state money to reimburse wealthy donors for their contributions to private schools. Read AQE's press release here and their budget analysis here.
UPCOMING EVENTS
NATIONAL
Feb. 17: Join parents, students and teachers in over 25 cities and "walk-in" for the schools all our children deserve! Details here.
Feb. 17: Join parents, students and teachers in over 25 cities and "walk-in" for the schools all our children deserve! Details here.
Follow the Alliance to Reclaim our Schools on Facebook and Twitter and learn more atwww.reclaimourschools.org.