Join GEM at the Panel for Educational Policy Meeting December 14 at Brooklyn Tech

HELP STOP THE ATTACKS OF

The Education Deformers
On Teachers, Parents and Children

 

 

Join the Grassroots Education Movement and the Real Reformers as they battle to end the status quo of mayoral control, the degrading of the teaching profession, the misuse and manipulation of data to close schools, the marginalization of parent, educator, and student voices, and the attempts to corporatize and privatize the public education system. Meet them at....

 

 

The Panel for Educational Policy Meeting

Dec. 14, 2010

Brooklyn Technical HS

29 FT GREENE PLACE, BROOKLYN, NY 11217

Subways B, M, Q, R to DeKalb Avenue; C to Lafayette Avenue; G to Fulton Street; 2, 3, 4, 5 to Nevins Street

 

 

Real Reformers will perform.  Click Sing Along With GEM for lyrics.

 

Leonie Haimson wrote on the NYC Public School Parent blog:

The DOE set the closing schools up for failureMost of these students at these schools continue to suffer from overly large classes that far exceed the state average of twenty students per class, as well as the goals in the city’s mandated class size reduction plan. In fact, class sizes have risen sharply in most of the schools slated for closure.

For example, check out the increases in class size at Beach Channel High school, one of the schools on today’s list of closures, which have occurred despite a promise from the DOE to make specific reductions at this school in return for hundreds of millions of dollars in Contract For Excellence funds.

Cathie Black says class size doesn't matter. Average class size at Kent boarding school where Cathie Black sent her children: 12 students per class

 

 

Why attend PEP meetings?

The Bloomberg controlled panel has to face the public once a month and even though most members are rubber stamps, they must sit through public comments before they vote. By attending we help build public pressure and advocate for real reforms. We also help support the only two independent members of the PEP, Patrick Sullivan (Manhattan) and Monica Major (Bronx). Finally, it provides an opportunity for Real Reformers to meet and take action together.

 

Real Reformers stand up for teachers, children and parent rights

Real Reformers fight back against those who shamelessly use the language of the civil rights movement to assault the very rights they claim to defend.  The defenders of the status quo are all about adults who are looking to game the system for their own benefits and not the children they claim to defend. (Just check some of the salaries charter school operators make, even when the results, even with their additional corporate funding, are often no better or worse than comparable public schools.

 

Defending teacher rights and advocating for better learning conditions for children are not incompatible. Children benefit when teachers with job security and decision making power have the freedom to advocate for their interests.

 

 

Cathie Black's appointment as chancellor sends a message that educational qualifications don't matter, reinforced by statements she has made negating teaching experience as an important factor. Many of our faculty have advanced degrees and our average tenure is more than a dozen years.

- KENT school, where Black sent her children

 

 

You’ve got to hand it to the public relations firm hired by the New York City Department of Education. The tag line they’ve come up with—“Children First. Always.”—is exactly what a school system should be championing. The Cathie Black controversy aside, critics point to the fallacy of the slogan, citing ongoing problems in the school system, including overcrowded classrooms, insufficient supplies, and the Department of Education’s capitulation to the standardized testing craze that’s been sweeping the nation.- The Brooklyn Rail

 

The Ad hoc committee to

Stop School Closures and Co-Locations meets

Tuesday, December 21, 4:30PM

at

CUNY, 34st and 5th Ave. Rm 5409.

 

Join Us and Fight Back!

Defend Public Education.  Stop Privatization.