Parents and Teachers United: A Force for Students, Public Education, and America!
On this Thanksgiving, I am remembering parents and teachers, Republicans and Democrats, who work together to create public schools that serve all children. This relationship is sacred and critical for children to learn. Without this bond there’s little hope for public education and America’s future.
The corporate reform, dystopian goal is to destroy public education for a privatized system. This will mean the end of democratic public ownership of public schools. Schools will be owned and marketed by outsiders who collect tax dollars for their own pursuit of profit on the backs of America’s students.
But parents and teachers working together goes a long way to push back the harmful corporate reforms making many troubling changes to schools.
Here are examples of threats to the parent-teacher relationship.
Astroturf Parent Groups with a Charter School Agenda.
Charter schools are mostly run by outside organizations who hire alternatively trained individuals like those from Teach for America. Parents usually have little say as to how these schools are run. They must follow the rules created by the owners.
Recently parents from a Memphis organization funded by the Walton Family Foundation showed up at a rally for Elizabeth Warren at Clark University in Atlanta and interrupted her speech. Warren has called for making charter schools more transparent.
This astroturf group and others like it, have parents who are convinced that charter CONTINUE READING: Parents and Teachers United: A Force for Students, Public Education, and America!