PROTEST

The Gates Foundation

When: June 26th 5PM

Where: Rally at Westlake Park (401 Pine St, Seattle)

March to Gates Foundation (440 5th Ave N, Seattle)

Our schools are under attack from the mega rich who seek to reduce education to standardized test scores while busting unions & denying at-risk youth a rich and holistic school experiences. To broaden and deepen public awareness about this, the BadAss Teachers (BATs) of Washington & allies are protesting The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on Thursday June 26th.

The Gates Foundation is a symbolic site because many of their experimental ‘reforms’ have done untold damage to our school system. Over-testing, charter schools, replacing teachers with computers, competitive grants, Teach for America, new standards profiting publishing companies instead of funding basic education; these will continue until we rise up & say NO. Educators should lead education, profit-driven entities & their foundations should not.

The monetary power of this one foundation has changed the face of our country’s school policy and agenda.

With this protest we galvanize a coalition of supporters to demand that teacher assessments are measuring student learning, that education policy is transparently & democratically created, & that every child’s needs are met in their public school.

Our Demands:

Redirect monies spent on experimental school reforms to empower citizens and promote whole child education. Further, we demand that philanthropists and the rest of the 1% pay their fair share for a socially just society.

Speakers: Anthony Cody (prolific education leader from CA) & Kshama Sawant (speaking as a teacher & city council member) will engage the crowd by connecting public education issues to larger issues of democracy vs. oligarchy. Morna McDermott & other education heroes will also make the case for school transformation, not corporate reformation.

From Westlake Park we will march to the corner of 5th AVE N and Mercer with chants and our chorus leading songs about positive education themes.

The RALLY to Save Education is an initial step in the movement to reclaim public schools from corporate interests. We are protesting The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Thursday June 26 but after that public demonstration, organizers are gathering to plan next steps. We are building a coalition, you are needed.

Anthony Cody will be speaking at 10:30 on Friday June 27th at the University of Washington HUB Room 332. His talk about the education ‘reform’ movement and how to reclaim our schools will be live streamed @ schoolhouselive.org

There will then be three breakout sessions for you to choose from (these are as valuable as YOU make them! We aren’t teaching you what to do, we are asking you to plan next steps for yourselves & to inspire others new to organizing):

Opt Out planning in your locale: Why & How?
Creating 21st Century Schools-what is our vision?
Coalition Building with other organizers who see Gates as a threat to social justice

Following those three work groups we will show the movie Standardized. A panel of speakers will do some Q & A following the movie.

Details here: https://m.facebook.com/events/742638552449687

Location here: http://depts.washington.edu/thehub/reserve-the-hub/hub-spaces/hub-332/

Rally has been formally endorsed by:

Network for Public Education

About The Network for Public Education


United OptOut
Parents Across America
Seattle Education Association
Renton Education Association
Highline Education Association
Tacoma Education Association
Marysville Education Association
Reynolds Education Association
Social Equality Educators (SEE) of SEA
Chicago Teachers Union CORE Caucus
Save Our Schools national organizing committee,
Fairtest.org (event is publicized on their action network- http://www.fairtest.org/testing-resistance-reform-spring)
National BATS

Online Presence:

Facebook Group:
https://www.facebook.com/EducatingTheGatesFoundation?ref=hl

Facebook Event (RSVP here or on Weebly site below):
https://www.facebook.com/events/1414946478760549/?ref_dashboard_filter=upcoming

Flashmob Info (everyone is welcome! Practices are on Saturdays but dance can also be learned online!)
https://m.facebook.com/events/250271828430004