October 7th: National Actions to Defend Public Education

From:

DefendEducation.org

What's happening:

Last fall, California sparked a movement that has grown drastically over the past year. Much energy went toward building March 4th 2010, National Day of Action to Defend Education, which as a resounding success in the struggle to defend public education. Thousands organized and participated in the events of that day which took place in 32 states. Major actions took place throughout California, but also in Milwaukee, New York City, Illinois, and Baltimore with hundreds of actions planned nationwide. University of Puerto Rico students capped off a two-month strike with a victory receiving many concessions from administration.

What is clear is that this fight is not over. The lines are drawn. As working families struggle to recover from the crisis, access to education is diminishing as cuts continue to come. California activists have proposed October 7th as the next Day of Action. Internationally, activists are focusing on October and November as crucial moments in the struggle to fight back against neoliberalism and defend education rights. We, the below signed organizations and individuals, call on students, teachers, faculty, staff, workers, and parents to unite together and Defend Public Education this fall.

In Texas, the Board of Education has drastically changed the content of Texas textbooks, to include praise of Joseph McCarthy, and many other clauses. In Arizona, The state has passed the racist SB1070 that mandates police detain anyone looks like an undocumented worker. Following this, Arizona is also shutting down ethnic studies programs. In New York City, Chicago, and Detroit, districts are facing massive school closings. Public universities throughout the country are raising tuition costs and looking for more private investors. Budget cuts, tuition hikes, school closings, and right-wing reforms are hitting working families the hardest, especially in communities of color.

As these cuts continue to come, we see the costs of neoliberalism hit home harder than they have before. Public education has been losing funding for years, much of which disappeared because of neoliberal changes to the economy. The current budget crisis in many states will result in further drastic cuts to public education, including further cuts to underfunded schools, increases in unpaid days off for staff, a incentive program promoting “reforms” that are outright attacks on teachers, a restructuring of the public university around the needs of private business – largely supported by massive private grants, and tuition hikes that threaten accessibility to higher education for working families and people of color.

As the education disparities between poor and affluent grow ever wider, public schools serving communities of color are swiftly being re-segregated, provided fewer resources, and less-experienced teachers. These students are being tracked into non-academic, dead-end programs while ethnic and multi-cultural classes and opportunities are being cut.

This crisis and this solution are a direct result of neoliberal-era ideology, reducing or dissolving taxes on the rich and corporations while working people struggle to provide for their families out of their ever-shrinking pockets. As private interests gain more power, as the private dollar begins to strengthen its influence in education, our democratic rights are being stripped away.

What you can do:

The time to act is now, students teachers and staff are preparing for the next wave of actions. We need your support and participation to make this day a historic moment in American history. To get involved please Email: fall_actions@defendeducation.org or call us at 8609162761

Endorsers

Group:
Bail Out the People Movement
Baltimore Algebra Project, Baltimore, MD
Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration, and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN)
De Anza Restoring Education, De Anza College, Cupertino, CA
Education Action Now, CSU Monterrey, CA
Education Rights Campaign at University of Wisconsin Milwaukee
Fight Imperialism Stand Together (FIST)
International Action Center
Labor Art & Mural Project, Central CT State University
Liberty Tree Foundation
March 4ward Coalition, CSU East Bay
May 1st Coalition for Worker & Immigrant Rights-NYC
New York City Labor Against the War
Peoples Video Network, New York, NY
Revolutionary Students Union – Utah Valley University
S.O.S. Save Our Schools Coalition, Providence, RI
Socialist Alternative
Socialist Organizer
Socratic Punk, Tampa, Fl
SpeakOut – the Institute for Democratic Education and Culture, Oakland CA
STAND at Queens College, Flushing, New York
Students for a Democratic Society – UNC Chapel Hill
Students for a Democratic Society – Gainesville
Students for a Democratic Society – Milwaulkee
Students for a Democratic Society – Northern Virginia
Students for a Democratic Society – University of Oklahoma
Students for a Democratic Society – Tuscaloosa
Students for a Democratic Society – Wilbur Wright College, Chicago, IL
Undergraduate-Graduate Alliance at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Venice Student Union, Los Angeles, California
Young Democratic Socialists – William Paterson University, Wayne, NJ
Youth Against War and Racism, Minneapolis and St. Paul Metro Area, Minnesota

Individual (group names for ID purposes only):
Ben Manski, AFT 6100, Sociology Faculty, Madison College
Jackie Hayes, UAlbany Coalition to Defend Education, Albany, NY
Michael Mulholland, AFSCME Local 207, Detroit, MI
Noam Chomsky, MIT Professor Emeritus of Linguistics, Internationally renowned Critic of US Foreign Policy
Dan LaBotz, Socialist Party candidate for the U.S. Senate from Ohio. Cincinnati, Ohio
Shannon Gibney, MN Organizing Group, Minneapolis

International Endorsers
AStA (student representative body) at the University of Marburg, Germany
Worldwide Nepalese Students’ Organisation-Nepal

For more information:

http://www.defendeducation.org/

State-by-State Information

Select your state

News

Hostile Takeover: Turning MI Cities Over to "Managers" Who Can Sell Off City Hall, Break Union Contracts, Privatize Services—and Even Fire Elected Officials

February 15, 2012

By:

Paul Abowd

Mother Jones

When the city of Pontiac, Michigan, shut down its fire department last Christmas Eve, city councilman Kermit Williams learned about it in the morning paper. "Nobody reports to me anymore," Williams says. "It just gets reported in the press." This was just the latest in a series of radical changes in the city, where elected officials such as Williams have been replaced by a single person with unprecedented control over the city's operation and budget.

Republicans Extend Open Enrollment To Unleash Market Forces On School Districts

February 13, 2012

By:

Matt DeFour

Wisconsin State Journal

Wisconsin's public school open enrollment period begins Monday, and for the first time, families will have three months to decide whether and where to enroll their students outside of their home school district.

For the Madison School District, the extra time could mean more families choosing to leave for other districts or virtual schools, though Superintendent Dan Nerad said it's too early to know what the affect will be.

"By the nature that there's an open window, that's likely to happen for us as well as other districts around the state," Nerad said.

Education Gap Grows Between Rich and Poor

February 9, 2012

By:

Sabrina Tavernise

The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Education was historically considered a great equalizer in American society, capable of lifting less advantaged children and improving their chances for success as adults. But a body of recently published scholarship suggests that the achievement gap between rich and poor children is widening, a development that threatens to dilute education’s leveling effects.

Take Action

Aug. 10, Benton Harbor Michigan: March to protest corporate takeover of city

From:

Rev. Edward Pinkney, Benton Harbor, Michigan

What's happening:

Tuesday, August 10, 2010, 11:00 am

City Hall, 200 E. Wall Street (49022)

All will march to Jean Klock Park to
protest Harbor Shores and Whirlpool's
hostile takeover of the city.

Everyone is invited. For info contact
Rev. Edward Pinkney, 269-925-0001,
banco9342@sbcglobal.net

Background: Benton Harbor, Michigan, is the center of a fightback against corporate power and control as the people of the city organize to oppose a corporate takeover of public land, their much-beloved Jean Klock park, for conversion to a privately owned golf course and lakefront development called Harbor Shores. Executives of the Whirlpool corporation, which is based in the city, are behind the effort to redevelop the land over strong public opposition. The struggle has been led by the Rev. Edward Pinkney, who has continued to speak out despite efforts by city officials to silence him, including a local judge's sentence of 3-10 years in prison that was later overturned as a violation of Rev. Pinkney's free-speech rights.

March 4 National Day of Action to Defend Education

From:

California students, staff and faculty

What's happening:

As people throughout the country struggle under the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, public education from pre-K to higher and adult education is threatened by budget cuts, layoffs, privatization, tuition and fee increases, and other attacks. Budget cuts degrade the quality of public education by decreasing student services and increasing class size, while tuition hikes and layoffs force the cost of the recession onto students and teachers and off of the financial institutions that caused the recession in the first place. Non-unionized charter schools threaten to divide, weaken and privatize the public school system and damage teachers’ unions, which are needed now more than ever. More and more students are going deep into debt to finance their education, while high unemployment forces many students and youth to join the military to receive a higher education. And all of the attacks described above have hit working people and people of color the hardest.

In California, students, teachers, workers, parents, and faculty have taken action against these attacks. They took to the streets in a one-day strike on September 24th, organized strikes and actions across the state during the University of California Board of Regents meeting from November 18th to 20th, and have called for a state-wide day of action on March 4th. These actions have created a broad mass movement in California, drawing in students from all over the state to create a powerful struggle. As the effects of the economic crisis continue to spread into the education system nationally, it’s time to join our voices with students and workers in California and draw inspiration from their example.

We support each group or coalition organizing in the manner and for the duration of their choosing. In solidarity with those in California, we the below-signed individuals and organizations call on students, teachers, workers, parents, faculty, and staff across the country to join together on March 4th to Take A Stand For Education!

Sign the Declaration: UNITED FOR EDUCATION!

From:

International Student Movement

What's happening:

We, the undersigned students, faculty, staff, parents, and concerned citizens worldwide stand united across all divisions of nationality, race, religion and field of studies to declare our support for the aims and objectives of the "Education is NOT for - Global Week of Action" called for by the independent "International Student Movement".

We are united in working to ensure that:

Public education is accessible to all and recognized as a fundamental right; NO to tuition fees!

Public education is free from exploitative corporate practices and state interests which conflict with those of the individual and the public interest.

Public education primarily serves democratic and public interests, instead of private, business, state and/or labour market interests.

Public education empowers individuals to become emancipated and autonomous people, able to critically evaluate themselves and their environment, and thus be actively involved in a genuinely democratic society.

If we are to have such a society we need general public discussions on the role of public education systems: Whose interests do they - and should they - primarily serve?

Help defend higher education in Tennessee

From:

United Campus Workers/CWA Local 3865

What's happening:

Despite weeks of students, labor, and community protests, Middle State Tennessee University (MTSU) President Sidney McPhee continues to move ahead with plans for major program cuts, outsourcing and layoffs, and other cuts that will have drastic effects on the campus community.

The current cuts being considered include the dismantling of Physics, Philosophy, Geosciences, Criminal Justice, all of which constitutes an attack on the academic core of the University; the closing of a beloved community resource in WMOT Jazz 89 as well as the closing of the June Anderson Woman's Center; and the further outsourcing of more of our campus's hardest working employees.

These cuts have been hastily proposed with minimal justification and despite Governor Bredesen's acceptance of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal aid meant to offset deep and lasting cuts to the state's education systems, and are being considered prior to a state budget being introduced, let alone passed. Read more.

Publications & Talks

Teleconference on the Global Wave of Resistance

October 12, 2011

Liberty Tree

On Wednesday, October 12, 2011, the Liberty Tree Foundation convened a special briefing, the Teleconference on the Global Wave of Resistance. This global conference featured over 100 participants, and updates from leading organizers of the global wave of student and labor strikes, occupations, and revolutions. Panelists include core organizers from the UK, Germany, Israel, and Chile, as well as Wisconsin, Boston, Oakland, Washington D.C., and Wall Street, among others. This was the second such teleconference on corporatization and austerity org

Additional Information:

Panelists included Nicolas Valenzuela, Uri Gordon, Mo Gas, James Sevitt, Adam Porton, Sarah Manski, Nadeem Mazen, Elaine Brower, Matt Nelson, plus moderator Ben Manski.

General

MANSKI: The Protest Wave: Why the Political Class Can’t Understand Our Demands

October 3, 2011

Ben Manski

Common Dreams

The protests that began in Wisconsin this year, and which now also fill the streets of Manhattan, Boston, Chicago, and this week, Washington D.C., have gotten the attention of the American political class. And how could they not? 2011 is becoming a remake of the 1999 Battle of Seattle, except this time the protests are ongoing, national and global, and the target is not just the World Trade Organization, but the entire edifice of corporate capitalism.

General

BADER: Review of The Lost Soul of Higher Education

June 1, 2010

Eleanor J. Bader

Ellen Schrecker, a history professor at New York City's Yeshiva University, starts "The Lost Soul of Higher Education" with a blunt assessment: "In reacting to the economic insecurities of the past forty years, the nation's colleges and universities have adopted corporate practices that degrade undergraduate instruction, marginalize faculty members, and threaten the very mission of the academy as an institution devoted to the common good."

Additional Information:

Original article here... http://www.truth-out.org/the-lost-soul-higher-education-corporatization-...

EDUCATION FOR ALL COALITION: Resources for March 4 Day of Action to Defend Public Education

February 21, 2010

Resources provided by Education For All Coalition members and coordinating affiliates. We’ve also included flyers, and with each flyer you’ll find a BLANK TEMPLATE version for you to utilize for your own specific purposes.

Free Speech Organizing Toolkit – A helpful handbook on your Free Speech Rights with an emphasis on educational institutions, provided by The Center for Campus Free Speech.

Guide To Occupying Buildings – A help informational guidebook on how to make occupying a building a success.

Organizing Resources

CCFS: Free Speech Organizing Toolkit

June 19, 2009

The Free Speech Organizing Toolkit is designed to provide campus leaders and free speech supporters with the tools to work with higher education leaders to remove impediments to a marketplace of ideas on their campus.

This valuable toolkit was produced by the Center for Campus Free Speech. The Center acts as a clearinghouse of information, provides specialized support to campuses, and connects concerned educators, administrators, lawyers and students into a national network. The Center draws advice and guidance from a group of leaders in the higher education and legal communities.

Democratizing Education Charter

June 16, 2009

Adopted at the 2005 Democratizing Education Convention in Madison, Wisconsin:

Full Public Funding for Public Higher Education
Free Access to Higher Education and Abolition of Tuition
Affirmative Action to End Institutionalized Racism and Sexism
Full Recognition of the Right of Students and Workers to Organize
Democratic Self-Government of Higher Education
Service to the Public Welfare, Not Corporate Profits
Free Speech and Academic Freedom
Debt Forgiveness of Student Loans
Civic Education for a Democratic Society
Education, not war. Schools, Not Jails

CENTER for CAMPUS FREE SPEECH: Guide to Student Activity Fees

March 31, 2009

The Center for Campus Free Speech releases there Guide to Student Activity Fees - a primer on the legal issues involved in creating and managing a student activity fee system.

Student fee systems are used by students across the country to provide the resources for a wide variety of out-of-classroom activities.

Students fund everything from service organizations to advocacy to educational forums and guest speakers. They debate and learn about critical issues like multiculturalism, the environment, education policy, conflicts in the Middle East and religion. They learn new skills and create change on major problems the world faces.

Student activity fees give involved students the resources to create a vibrant marketplace of ideas on campus.

CEPR: Dropping the Ax: Illegal Firings During Union Election Campaigns

March 9, 2009

This report, by John Schmitt and Ben Zipperer of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, updates an earlier report from January of 2007, which found a steep rise in illegal firings of pro-union workers in the 2000s relative to the last half of the 1990s. It updates the index of the probability that a pro-union worker will be fired in the course of a union election campaign, using published data from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). It also takes into consideration the increase in card-check organizing campaigns that began in the mid-1990s and adjusts the index for this factor.

Areas of Focus

Affirmative Action

Books not Bombs

Campus Democracy

Civic Education

Corporatization

Debt Forgiveness

Free Speech

Full Funding

Right to Organize

Tuition Abolition