NYC Public School Parents: Parents & community members protest closure of PS 88 in the Bronx; will they be forced to take DOE to court to stop this irrational proposal?

NYC Public School Parents: Parents & community members protest closure of PS 88 in the Bronx; will they be forced to take DOE to court to stop this irrational proposal?

Parents & community members protest closure of PS 88 in the Bronx; will they be forced to take DOE to court to stop this irrational proposal?

Stories on the proposed closure of PS 88 have appeared in the Daily News and on Bronx News-12 TV.

DOE officials are trying to close a small, beloved K-3 zoned school in District 9 in the Bronx, PS 88, also called CES 88 or the Silverstein Little Sparrow School.  They want to leave the entire building empty and send the current students to PS 53, a 4th-5th grade school blocks away.  Why?

They claim that the school has lost enrollment this year, but so have 60% of all NYC public schools.  They claim the school is under-enrolled, but this ignores that the school utilization formula is aligned with class sizes larger than the state's highest court in the CFE lawsuit said were necessary for a sound basic education.  The DOE refused to revise the school utilization formula to allow for smaller classes, despite the fact that their own advisory Blue Book Working group urged them to do so.

Instead, PS 88's relatively low enrollment and available classroom space has meant that their students have been able to attend school in person five days a week during the pandemic, complete with small classes and social distancing,  in nearly ideal learning conditions especially for a high-poverty school.  If these kids are shunted off to PS 53, their class sizes will likely double and fewer kids will be able to attend in person, that is if the safety protocols require any social distancing in the fall.

Moreover, if DOE officials are really so concerned about the school's under-enrollment, all they have to do is add a 3K and/or a preK class to the school, neither of which it currently has  though strangely, they did insert preK classes into PS 53, sharing that building with 4th and 5th graders. 

Alternatively, they could also rezone the neighborhood, so that more children now attending the Walton Avenue School (09X294) and Lucero Elementary School (09X311) just a CONTINUE READING: NYC Public School Parents: Parents & community members protest closure of PS 88 in the Bronx; will they be forced to take DOE to court to stop this irrational proposal?

The most effective civil rights protest that you probably never heard of | Eclectablog

The most effective civil rights protest that you probably never heard of | Eclectablog

The most effective civil rights protest that you probably never heard of

In 1977, the longest occupation of a federal building in the history of the United States of America took place and, when it ended, the protesters had achieved what nobody thought possible: regulations covering the enforcement of a four-year old law — Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The protest is now called “The 504 Sit-In” and for over three weeks, members of the disability community occupied the Federal Building at 50 United Nations Plaza in San Francisco, which housed the regional office of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW), the federal agency tasked with creating the regulations required by Rehabilitation Act.

The original protest rally at the HEW office in San Francisco was part of nationwide day of protests which began on 44 years ago today on April 5th. Unlike the protests in other cities, the organizers of the San Francisco rally had been quietly planning an occupation of the office there. Occupiers came to the rally with backpacks filled with some essentials and, when the rally concluded, the entered the building and refused to leave until HEW Secretary Joseph Califano signed the Section 504 regulations which gave guidance on how the law would be enforced.

Stories from the nearly month-long occupation are riveting and dramatic. Over 100 people with disabilities of all kinds participated. People with deafness. People with blindness. People living CONTINUE READING: The most effective civil rights protest that you probably never heard of | Eclectablog

We Need a Massive National Campaign to Protest School Privatization | janresseger

We Need a Massive National Campaign to Protest School Privatization | janresseger

We Need a Massive National Campaign to Protest School Privatization

Fighting the privatization of public education feels like an overwhelming challenge. Partly, because all kinds of vouchers (plain old vouchers, tuition tax credits, and education savings accounts) are set up and funded by state legislatures, and charter schools are also set up and controlled (and too frequently poorly regulated) by state law,  the battle is fragmented from place to place.  Except for the money allocated every year out of the federal Charter Schools Program, begun in 1994 during the Clinton administration, school privatization is not driven by federal policy that affects all of us across the United States.  What happens in California and Arizona doesn’t have any effect on the public schools of Ohio where I live.  So why should I care about what happens in another state?

Then there is the question of why the problem of school privatization matters so much. While much of the research and advocacy materials about the impact of school privatization inspects the quality of the privatized school alternatives, I  believe that what ought to concern us most is the amount of money being driven out of the public schools that serve the mass of our children. The evidence shows that school funding in many states has fallen very significantly since the Great Recession in 2008 and that school privatization has contributed to that problem.

In his new book, Schoolhouse Burning, Derek Black,traces, for example, how funding charter schools depleted public school funding in Ohio during and after the Great Recession in 2008: “While states were reducing their financial commitment to public schools, they were pumping enormous new resources into charters and vouchers—and making the policy environment for these alternatives more favorable. Charter schools, unlike traditional public schools, did not struggle during the recession. Their state and federal funding skyrocketed. Too often, financial shortfalls in public school districts were the direct result of pro-charter school policies… Ohio CONTINUE READING: We Need a Massive National Campaign to Protest School Privatization | janresseger

Dan Shelton Compares Protesting Teachers Meeting To Terrorist Attack At The Capitol. Time To Step Down Dan! | Exceptional Delaware

Dan Shelton Compares Protesting Teachers Meeting To Terrorist Attack At The Capitol. Time To Step Down Dan! | Exceptional Delaware

Dan Shelton Compares Protesting Teachers Meeting To Terrorist Attack At The Capitol. Time To Step Down Dan!

In a moment of unbelievable stupidity, Christina Superintendent Dan Shelton actually suggested that the teachers airing their beefs with the idiotic decisions he has made on behalf of their district is comparable to social media groups that led to the attacks on the United States Capitol last week.

While he did not directly say the word teachers, the implication was definitely there. He said that given the events of last week that we should see that large groups can choose facts that legitimize their own agenda and no matter how big they are they aren’t right.

I have no doubt Shelton is very upset that teachers would dare to speak against his own Trumpian power in the Christina School District. This kind of thing never happened when he ran the Capital School District for five years so this would have to be a tremendous blow to his already overinflated ego.

To even compare the teachers in his own district to actual CONTINUE READING: Dan Shelton Compares Protesting Teachers Meeting To Terrorist Attack At The Capitol. Time To Step Down Dan! | Exceptional Delaware

Christina Board President Keeley Powell Wusses Out On Having Board Meet In Public, Afraid Of “Disruption” By Teachers https://exceptionaldelaware.wordpress.com/2021/01/12/christina-board-president-keeley-powell-wusses-out-on-having-board-meet-in-public-afraid-of-disruption-by-teachers/

COVID-19 and Mass Protests: Lessons Learned and Future Directions | Schott Foundation for Public Education

COVID-19 and Mass Protests: Lessons Learned and Future Directions | Schott Foundation for Public Education

COVID-19 and Mass Protests: Lessons Learned and Future Directions

On August 20, 2020, The People’s Think Tank (PTT), an intersectional movement space for reimagining a radically democratic future for education justice, held a virtual convening: COVID-19 and Mass Protests: Lessons Learned and Future Directions.

The online gathering brought together more than thirty of PTT’s fifty-plus members, which included a diverse representation of the educational justice movement and social justice allies. Together, members engaged in a deep conversation about how the education justice movement is responding to the COVID-19 crisis and the rise of mass protests against police killings and systemic racism.

A panel discussion Can’t Stop! Won’t Stop! Education Justice in the Now moderated by Letha Muhammad, Director of Education Justice Alliance included: Marika Pfefferkorn, Midwest Center for School Transformation, Maria Fernandez, Campaign for Police-free Schools and Advancement Project, Jitu Brown, Journey for Justice Alliance, Zakiyah Ansari, Alliance for Quality Education and Chianne “Cloudy” Carrier, Sacramento Areas Youth Speaks. The panel explored how COVID-19 has affected panelists personally and in their community and work, lessons learned, and future directions for the movement.

Immediately following the panel, Jonathan Stith, National Director of the Alliance for Educational Justice, led members through small group circles to dive deeper into dialogue with one another.

Across the panel and small groups, participants shared how the pandemic has devastated communities of color and heightened inequities in public education. Organizers themselves have felt more challenged and overwhelmed than ever trying to support their own children and families, help their communities by quickly facilitating mutual aid support, engage with school districts around plans for the fall, and mobilize quickly to take advantage of new openings in challenging anti-Black racism and racial inequities. Some participants shared new and emerging strategies, like the Journey for Justice Alliance’s Equity or Else principles for safe and equitable return to schools and campaigns that have won police-free schools. The heightened need for solidarity across issue-based movements came out strongly as a result of the twin pandemics of CONTINUE READING: COVID-19 and Mass Protests: Lessons Learned and Future Directions | Schott Foundation for Public Education

Ed Notes Online: Teachers, Parents, Students to Rally Outside Tweed and UFT HQ to Protest Unsafe School Reopening

Ed Notes Online: Teachers, Parents, Students to Rally Outside Tweed and UFT HQ to Protest Unsafe School Reopening

Teachers, Parents, Students to Rally Outside Tweed and UFT HQ to Protest Unsafe School Reopening

Good morning,

I thought you would be interested in this rally and march led by school staff, parents and students, happening today at 5 pm outside UFT headquarters and Tweed DOE offices. This is part of a national day of action against unsafe, unfunded school reopening. In addition to MORE, 20 additional groups are joining and we expect a big turnout.

Please let me know if you have any questions,

Liat

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 3, 2020

Press Contacts:

Liat Olenick

917-930-2788

LiatOlenick@gmail.com

Teachers, Parents, Students to Rally Outside Tweed and UFT HQ to Protest Unsafe School Reopening 

New York, New York:  Today, the MORE-UFT Caucus as well as parents, students and advocacy organizations including the Alliance for Quality Education, Rise and Resist and Coalition for Educational Justice will join school communities taking action across the country to march and rally to push back against the insufficient, unsafe, underfunded hybrid reopening plan being put forth by the UFT, the Chancellor and the Mayor. Those who cannot join the rally and march in person will be taking action from home to prevent an unsafe reopening. 

“The science is clear. COVID is airborne indoors, especially in poorly ventilated, crowded classrooms Here in New York City, more than 20,000 people have already died from COVID-- mostly Black and Latinx New Yorkers. Returning to school buildings while COVID continues to spread across the country will put more Black and Latinx New Yorkers at even greater risk,” said teacher Andrew Worthington. “ We demand no new cases for 14 days, all health and safety measures implemented including consistent rapid testing, contact tracing, safe public transit and community input.”

‘Our schools were underfunded before COVID hit. Now they face new budget cuts because the Governor refuses to tax the rich, and the Mayor refused to substantially divest from the NYPD. In order to reopen safely we need more funding for teachers, nurses, social workers, counselors and supplies and New Yorkers need financial relief,” said Tajh Sutton, CEC14 President and Teens Take Charge Program Manager. “Forcing school buildings to reopen without additional funding will put staff in the untenable position of having to enforce high stakes public health guidelines without adequate resources which could further put our Black and Brown students at risk of being criminalized.” 

“The DOE, the Mayor and the Governor have consistently left parents, teachers and students out of decisions about reopening. They have refused to consider our creative ideas, hear our feedback on remote learning or transparently answer basic questions,” said Marilena Marchetti. “We demand that stakeholders are fully empowered and included in planning for both school reopening and for equitable remote learning that includes opportunities for outdoor learning and therapeutic service delivery for prioritized student populations.” 

What: March and rally to stop and unsafe school reopening as part of a national day of action. 

When: Monday, August 3rd, 5:00 p.m.- 7:00 p.m. 

Where: The March will start at UFT Headquarters at 52 Broadway and end at DOE offices at Tweed Courthouse. 

Who: Movement of Rank & File Educators(MORE-UFT), Parents Supporting Parents NY, PoliFem, DC 37 Progressive Caucus, Justice Center en el Barrio, Rise and Resist, Revolting Lesbians, Alliance for Quality Education NYC, Ya-Ya Network, Black Lives Matter School Week of Action NYC, A Call to Action on Puerto Rico, Workers World Party, New York Boricua Resistance, Peoples Power Assemblies NYC, NYC Coalition for Educational Justice, BATALA, Young People of Color Incorporated, Freedom For all, Dynamic Therapy Intervention, NYC Democratic Socialists of America 23. Party for Socialism and Liberation, Community Education Council 14

Ed Notes Online: Teachers, Parents, Students to Rally Outside Tweed and UFT HQ to Protest Unsafe School Reopening

Educators- Day Day of Resistance - Covid-19

Choosing Democracy: Educators- Day Day of Resistance - Covid-19

Educators- Day Day of Resistance - Covid-19

What is the National Day of Resistance, #EquityorElse?

Thousands of parents, students, educators  and school staff that have been on the frontlines fighting for racial justice in the US public school system are joining forces on August 3^rd to demand equity and safe conditions before schools are reopened. As the fight against systemic racism and state sanctioned violence has reached historic heights, on the heels of the disparate impact of COVID-19 on Black, Brown and Indigenous families, organizers and union leaders are coalescing around a comprehensive set of demands to ensure that the safety of students and school staff is guaranteed before school doors are opened.  

For more information:   

Take ACTION Now:

Talking Points & Messaging

Who We Are

In this movement moment, our organizations have come together to unite students, educators, parents and community to advance a racial justice agenda in public education, in particular by organizing for police-free schools. We’re working to galvanize a strong and growing student/educator/parent/community voice; a voice that says the government must go much further to provide the resources to ensure a safe and equitable school reopening and must provide for our communities and working families through transformational Common Good demands. Leading organizations include:  

This Moment

We are in a unique moment in our history characterized by:

  

Our Message

Participating Cities:

Chicago, Oakland, Little Rock, Denver, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Baton Rouge, Camden, Newark, NYC, Boston, Massachusetts, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, North Carolina, Dallas, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Orlando, West Virginia, St. Paul and Minneapolis

Demands, Target & Tactics

Demands:

1. No reopening until the scientific data supports it 
2. Police-free schools
3. All schools must be supported to function as community schools with adequate numbers of counselors and nurses and community/parent outreach workers 
4. Safe conditions including lower class sizes, PPE, cleaning, testing, and other key protocols 
5. Equitable access to online learning 
6. Support for our communities and families, including moratorium on evictions/foreclosures, cancel rent and mortgages, providing direct cash assistance to those not able to work or who are unemployed, and other critical social needs 
7. Moratorium on new charter or voucher programs and standardized testing 
8. Massive infusion of federal money to support the reopening funded by taxing the billionaires and Wall Street 

Tactics and Targets

1. Sign-on national letter to Trump, Biden and Congressional leaders outlining our demands as outlined above for re-opening 
2. Local actions on August 3rd in as many cities/areas as possible, all focused on re-opening conditions/ demands, with local discretion on political and corporate/revenue targets, 
3. Work with Journey for Justice and other groups to organize escalating actions in cities ready to escalate their tactics, i.e. occupy city hall, take over city property for homeless students, bank occupations

Activities & Action Ideas for August 3rd

Social Media

Check out 

   

Choosing Democracy: Educators- Day Day of Resistance - Covid-19

Teachers Union OKs Strikes If Schools Reopen Without Safety Measures In Place | 89.3 KPCC

Teachers Union OKs Strikes If Schools Reopen Without Safety Measures In Place | 89.3 KPCC

Teachers Union OKs Strikes If Schools Reopen Without Safety Measures In Place

The head of a powerful national teachers union told members Tuesday that its leadership would support "safety strikes" if health precautions are not met amid calls for schools to reopen as coronavirus cases surge.

Randi Weingarten, who leads the American Federation of Teachers, is leaving the final decision to local unions on whether to strike. The AFT — the nation's second-largest teachers union, with 1.7 million members — also unveiled several benchmarks that it said should be met before schools can fully welcome back students and staff.

"We will fight on all fronts for the safety of our students and their educators," Weingarten said in remarks delivered at the union's biennial convention, conducted online due to the pandemic.

"But if authorities don't protect the safety and health of those we represent and those we serve ... nothing is off the table," she warned. "Not advocacy or protests, negotiations, grievances or lawsuits, or, if necessary and authorized by a local union, as a last resort, safety strikes."

The Trump administration has been leading the push for schools to fully reopen in a CONTINUE READING: Teachers Union OKs Strikes If Schools Reopen Without Safety Measures In Place | 89.3 KPCC

glen brown: Why a return to campus is a bad idea

glen brown: Why a return to campus is a bad idea

Why a return to campus is a bad idea

People Who Are at Increased Risk for Severe Illness | CDC - https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/people-at-increased-risk.html via @CDCgov

“It might be time for parents to get into the conversation about reopening college campuses. University administrators are deciding they’re going to go for it, which is exactly the same thing as saying, ‘We’re going to do what we can, hope for the best, and gamble that infection rates will be low enough to justify the unavoidable threat to the students.’

“For sure, the data tells us that the health threat of COVID-19 increases the older you are. So in aggregate, across the broad sample set of students, the laws of large numbers might work out to the advantage of the university.

“Not so for the students who become victims of reopening decisions driven by economics over the well-being of the people paying for the privilege of becoming subjects of a large, uncontrolled laboratory experiment in the age of pandemic infection.

“So far, university presidents are suggesting that they can create safer classrooms, and therefore, provide a safe campus. That’s a dangerously flawed premise, which willfully ignores everything we know about social distancing.

“Parents, you know this. Human nature is an irresistible force. The inconvenient truth is that the public health issue has very little to do with safer classrooms. Adjusting classroom instruction is the easy part. What about the other 21 hours in the day of every student on campus?

“Even if every other enterprise in America can reopen with some semblance of reasonable social distancing in place -- a sketchy proposition, at best, CONTINUE READING: glen brown: Why a return to campus is a bad idea

Valuing Black Lives: Understanding Racism in American Education, Housing and Policing + What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? | Schott Foundation for Public Education

Valuing Black Lives: Understanding Racism in American Education, Housing and Policing | Schott Foundation for Public Education

Valuing Black Lives: Understanding Racism in American Education, Housing and Policing

What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? | Schott Foundation for Public Education - http://schottfoundation.org/node/4243

The deliberate devaluation of Black-majority cities stems from a longstanding legacy of discriminatory policies. The lack of investment in Black homes, family structures, businesses, schools, and voters has had far-reaching, negative economic and social effects. White supremacy and privilege are deeply ingrained into American public policy, and remain pervasive forces that hinder meaningful investment in Black communities.

Educator and journalist Andre Perry's acclaimed new book Know Your Price: Valuing Black Lives and Property in America's Cities takes readers on a tour of six Black-majority cities whose assets and strengths are undervalued. The deliberate devaluation of Blacks and their communities has had very real, far-reaching, and negative economic and social effects. An enduring white supremacist myth claims brutal conditions in Black communities are mainly the result of Black people’s collective choices and moral failings.

In this moment of crisis, grief, and uprisings, join us for a conversation between Andre Perry and Edgar Villanueva as they discuss the methods that perpetuate white supremacy in the education, housing, economic, and carceral sectors. How do they intersect and reinforce each other? What grassroots movements do we need to nurture that can fight back on these multiple fronts? What would a truly Loving City look like?

Speakers:

• Andre Perry, Fellow, Brookings Institution
• Edgar Villanueva, Senior Vice President of Programs & Advocacy, Schott Foundation for Public Education

Valuing Black Lives: Understanding Racism in American Education, Housing and Policing | Schott Foundation for Public Education

It's time to revisit the Washington Murals debate. - SF PUBLIC SCHOOL MOM

It's time to revisit the Washington Murals debate. - SF PUBLIC SCHOOL MOM

It’s time to revisit the Washington Murals debate.

I firmly stand behind my vote to paint down the Life of Washington Murals. I don’t need white (and Asian) alumni, many of whom graduated from the school before it was even integrated as a result of Brown v. Board of Education, to tell me what those murals represent.

The Black children and families that walk into the school each day seeing their ancestors picking cotton and kneeling before a slave master, know what those paintings represent. Native American and Indigenous children and families don’t need false histories of scalping and “Indian attacks” and true histories of “Dead Indians” to know what those paintings represent. That history is a part of them.

As Caroline Randall Williams states in her NY Times article titled “You Want a Confederate Monument? My Body Is a Confederate Monument”:

“My blackness does not put me on the other side of anything. It puts me squarely at the heart of the debate.”

— Caroline Randall Williams

When I voted to paint over the Life of Washington Murals, I did so because I know what it feels like to see your history marginalized and erased. I know CONTINUE READING: It's time to revisit the Washington Murals debate. - SF PUBLIC SCHOOL MOM

22 Reasons Why Schools Should NOT Reopen in the Fall

22 Reasons Why Schools Should NOT Reopen in the Fall

22 Reasons Why Schools Should NOT Reopen in the Fall

Well-meaning parents and schoolboards have been working remotely to determine how to safely reopen schools, but these plans are filled with uncertainty. Many of the changes make schools unrecognizable.

The Coronavirus has involved conflicting information. Now we’re seeing an uptick in cases.

It’s not what anyone wants, but fall doesn’t seem like a good time to reopen schools.

Here’s why:

1. Illness and Russian Roulette 

According to the CDC, the risk might seem low for children, but they still get sick, some seriously. Children and teenagers have died. Questions still surround the disease. It’s not worth the risk. Maybe the situation will improve by January, or next summer. Currently we’re experiencing a pandemic and safety is the number one concern.

2. How Will the Flu and Covid-19 Tango? 

Maybe Covid-19 alone doesn’t affect children as badly as adults, but what if you mix it with the flu? Every year the flu kills children. Last January, before Covid-19 became well known, 27 children had died of the flu. What will the dance of these two illnesses look like in the fall?

3. Adults Matter Too!

A large concern with children is that they can spread the disease to teachers, parents, and grandparents who could be vulnerable. It isn’t fair to risk their health by CONTINUE READING: 22 Reasons Why Schools Should NOT Reopen in the Fall

Jesse Hagopian: Why Seattle Educators Demand Cut to Police Budget | Diane Ravitch's blog

Jesse Hagopian: Why Seattle Educators Demand Cut to Police Budget | Diane Ravitch's blog

Jesse Hagopian: Why Seattle Educators Demand Cut to Police Budget

Jesse Hagopian is a high school teacher and social justice activist in Seattle. He has been a leading force on behalf of Black Lives Matter Movement.

He wrote this opinion article for the Seattle Times to explain why Seattle educators want money redirected from policing to social services.

He writes:

Seattle’s Education Association representative assembly — the union body that represents Seattle’s teachers, nurses, librarians, instructional assistants, office professionals and educational support staff — has overwhelmingly passed seven resolutions in solidarity with the movement for Black lives. These included removing police from schools and the King County Labor Council, (which was achieved by a recent vote of the council), educating SEA members on alternatives to calling 911 on students, and my own resolution to defund the Seattle Police Department and reinvest the money in education, health care and programs to support families.

These bold resolutions, adopted June 8, were surely CONTINUE READING: Jesse Hagopian: Why Seattle Educators Demand Cut to Police Budget | Diane Ravitch's blog