Puerto Rico Teachers Plan One-Day Strike to Protest Corporate Education Reform
Welcome to sunny Puerto Rico.
The ocean is a gorgeous cerulean blue. Palm trees wave gently in the salty breeze. And in the distance you can hear percussion, horns and singing.
The protest has begun.
Residents of this United States territory have been fighting freshman GovernorAlejandro GarcÃa Padilla’s efforts to close public schools, privatize those left and shackle teachers to the same corporate education reform schemes that are crippling schools on the mainland.
This Tuesday island educators are asking parents not to send their children to school. Teachers plan to conduct a one-day strike to protest legislation that could be passed the same day to further cripple the Commonwealth’s public education system.
“On November 17th we’ll be giving our lesson’s outside our classrooms,” says Mercedes Martinez, president of the Federación de Maestros de Puerto Rico, the teachers union.
“We’ll be in front of our schools early in the morning and at 10:00 a.m. will march from Congress to the Governor’s Mansion in San Juan. This is one of many activities that we’ll perform in defense of public education. We will not accept these precarious impositions and will fight back.”
The protest is in response to Project 1456 which would close more than 380 public Puerto Rico Teachers Plan One-Day Strike to Protest Corporate Education Reform | gadflyonthewallblog:
