Join Parents, Teachers, Students and Community: Defend Public Education

January 2011

Parents, Educators, Community Members, Council Members:

The NYC Department of Education is refusing to help our struggling schools.  Many are being closed.  When schools are closed, other schools in the neighborhood become overcrowded which in turn tends to lower their performance making them targets for closure. Others are being invaded by corporate sponsored, non-union, non-public organizations. Teaching and learning are being crippled by the reliance on standardized tests to make high stakes decisions about students, teachers and schools. We can't sit back any longer and allow the DOE and Mayor Bloomberg to dismantle, destroy and undermine OUR public schools!  Our schools cannot be successful and shine as funds are stripped away and CEOs who have little or no educational background are put in charge.  Parents and teachers are pitted against each other so that we become divided.  Public school students, children of color in the vast majority, are being used to further the goal of privatizing and controlling public education for the benefit of corporate interests.

We need to take back ownership of OUR schools and demand an enriched education for every child in NYC.  No one person or group can do this alone.  There has to be solidarity, cooperation and mutual support among those of us fighting for a truly democratic, equitable and just system of public education.  We may not all agree on all of the issues facing education today, but we can agree that closing schools, "transforming" them or replacing them with charters, in a punitive, uninformed and undemocratic manner, will only result in catastrophe for students.  And we can agree that the business model, which has failed our entire economy, is not the one we should use to run our schools.

Help stop school closings and charter invasions.  Let your voices be heard.  Say no to privatization.  Demand equitable funding and democratic governance for our schools, not closures.  Tell Mayor Bloomberg and the DOE that we will not allow OUR children to be hurt any longer!

Defend public education by joining together in a citywide rally:  

January 27, 2010

4:30 PM

 City Hall Plaza near Brooklyn Bridge  (by the #4,5,6 trains)

Ad Hoc Committee to Stop School Closings & Charter Takeovers

Blog:  http://stopschoolclosings.wordpress.com/

If your organization wishes to endorse this event please send an email to:

Gloria Brandman:  gbran289@aol.com

Contact gemnyc@gmail.com for more information.

NEXT MEETING OF

THE ADHOC COMMITTEE

Tuesday, Jan. 18th, 5 pm. CUNY Graduate Center, 34th street and 5th Ave. Room 5414

Planning meetings are open to all!  Bring colleagues!

Fight Back Friday January 21

PRESS CONFERENCE

4:30 PM Steps of Tweed Building

52 Chambers Street

Sponsors* 

Ad Hoc Committee to Stop School Closings and Charter Takeovers

Class Size Matters
Coalition for Public Education (CPE)
Grassroots Education Movement NYC (GEM)

New York Collective of Radical Educators (NYCoRE)
The Manhattan Local of the Green Party of NY State

Endorsers*

Chris Owens/ District Leader/52nd AD

Black Women Against Urban Youth Violence

Concerned Advocates for Public Education (CAPE)

Center For Immigrant Families (CIF)

City Wide Coalition For Educational Excellence Now

Independent Community of Educators (ICE)

NYwithUPR (NY with University of Puerto Rico)

Independent Workers Movement/Movimiento Independiente de Trabajadores

Puerto Rico Solidarity Network - PRSN NY

People Power Movement

Renaissance School of the Arts-M377 (UFT Chapter)

Retiree Advocate Caucus/UFT
South Bronx Community Council

Teachers Unite(TU)

Teachers for a Just Contract (TJC)

(*Lists in Formation)