Jan. 21 - Citywide Protest at Bloomberg's

Stop Bloomberg’s school closures

& Invasion of public schools with charter schools!

Thurs. Jan. 21 by BLOOMBERGS’s Home

17 E. 79th St. ( 5^th and Madison Ave)

4 – 6:30 pm.

Come join 22 school communities of the neighborhoods affected by proposed closure and charter takeovers as students, parents, teachers, and citizens let the mayor know that one-man rule over 1.1 million students in NYC is wrong and detrimental:

• Why at his residence? One citizen of NYC makes absolute decisions concerning our students in the public school system. Instead of funding and supporting our neighborhoods, he is abandoning our community schools – so we will go to his neighborhood to voice our dissent.

• Why do we defend our schools? The rationale behind school closures has been the 4 year graduation rate. However, the 5 year graduation rate of these schools average 75 % and keeps rising. Schools should be rewarded and supported for not giving up on our children. Fact: only 50% of all COLLEGE graduates get a bachelors degree in 6 years. Fact: 3 out of 4 Americans live meaningful productive lives without a Bachelor’s degree as plumbers, entrepreneurs, cosmetologists, EMT, police officers, firefighters, etc. The mayor’s elitist vision of society is labeling the rest of us as losers.

• Why not Charter Schools? The little known secret behind charter schools and small schools is that they steal the highest achieving students from district schools, and turn away ELL, Special Education, and struggling students. It is not the new paint, the potpourri in the bathroom, nor the inexperienced teachers that burn out after several years: it is the theft of talented students from every grade level. Bloomberg is abandoning the majority of our students to second class status, in a two tiered system of overcrowding and disparate funding. While the budgets of community schools have been cut 10% in the last year and half, charter schools have received millions in capital plan and resource dollars.

• Why not the vision of one man? Bloomberg is bringing a vision of business accountability that has destroyed even the business world. The mindless slavery to data – has cut arts and music programs, dumbed-down the curriculum with gamed testing, brought corruption into our schools via credit recovery and credit tampering, have pushed good teachers from struggling schools, and installed lawyers, bureaucrats, and billionaires to make educational decisions without any true community input.

Sponsors: THE EMERGENCY COALITION TO STOP SCHOOL CLOSINGS; INCLUDING PARENTS, TEACHERS, AND STUDENTS AT PS-15K, Jamaica HS, William H. Maxwell CTE, Concerned Advocates for Public Education - CAPE, Grassroots Education Movement - GEM, Independent Community of Educators - ICE/UFT, ... (list in formation)

For latest updates on the Jan. 21 protest go to:

http://grassrootseducationmovement.blogspot.com/

GEMnyc@gmail.com 718-601-4901

or

www.capeducation.blogspot.com