Conference For a Community Based Plan For Our Schools: Alternatives to Austerity and Privatization

Posted by on September 03, 2012

Conference For a Community-Based Plan For Our Schools: Alternatives to Austerity and Privatization
Friday evening, September 21 and Saturday, September 22nd

The School Reform Commission, corporate sponsored foundations, and the city’s business elites, have a vision for our schools that leaves them underfunded, further restricts the democratic voice of parents, students, and citizens, undermines the rights of school workers, and offers no real solutions to the pressing needs of our city’s young people.

The SRC’s plan for massive closures of neighborhood public schools, while accelerating the growth of charter schools, strikes at the heart of the idea of public education as an institution that serves all children.    In cities across the nation schools in predominantly African-American and Latino communities are being closed in “restructuring” plans sponsored by corporate school reformers.   Standardized test scores rather than the needs of our children drive decisions about education.

This spring in community meetings in schools and churches parents, students, educators and neighborhood residents spoke out against the school budget and privatization plan.   Now it is time to take the next step, moving from opposition to developing an alternative vision for our schools and a plan for realizing it.
To begin this process we are calling for a conference that will bring together parents, students, educators, and neighborhoods to build this alternative from the bottom up.

The Conference will aim at deepening our understanding of the privatization plans and austerity budget that have been presented by the SRC and the Boston Consulting group.   We will then focus on two related tasks:

•    Launching  a democratic, community based process that over the next few months could develop a plan that reflects the needs and interests of parents, students, educators and neighborhoods.

•    Taking the first steps to develop a state wide network to win a people’s budget that will prioritize human needs and raise revenue by closing tax loopholes for corporations and the super rich.

To join in the process of planning and building this important event email us at [email protected]