Mayor Bloomberg’s Department of Education plans to close 26 schools and open more buildings to privately-run charter schools. Stand up to school closings and privatization! Rally with parents, students, teachers and community members and declare that our schools and children are not for sale!
January 27th 4:30 – 6:30 PM
City Hall Plaza, Near the Brooklyn Bridge
Trains: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, A, C, R
A Call to Action from from the Ad Hoc Committee to Stop School Closings & Charter Takeovers
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!
Rally January 27th – STOP School Closings! STOP Charter Takovers!