Maureen Reedy, veteran Ohio teacher, writes:
Mary, Linda, Lisa, Ann, George, Cheryl, Neil, Marcie, Ron, Robin, Stef, Joe, Ms. Cartwheel Librarian … and other Public Education Patriots,
Great! Great! Great!
I am so inspired by our growing group interest in Public Schools Across America/Hands Across America ~
Together, we are going to figure out a way to pull this off!
I am collecting emails for those interested, please email if you want to be in the loop:
maureen.reedy@gmail.com (I wish I was more tech savy!)
I have pitched our idea of Public Schools Across America/Hands Across America to Parents Across America and have a conference call with them next week.
• You ask about pre-planning, that definitely is key…
• First, each of us needs to think of any contacts in our state/region whom you think would be interested in helping to organize.
• Start a list so that when we are ready to roll with a definite framework beyond the conceptual phase, we are ready with key contacts in each state.
• Think of anyone in the public education universe who is pro-public ed that you know; Mary, I’ll bet you have great contacts in the Statehouse being a former State Rep…..
We need teachers, superintendents, state school board members, local school board members, administrators, etc., parents, legislators, council members, PARENTS are HUGE, any well known folks whom are reputable and known to be public ed supporters ~ writers, singers, actors, etc.
• Start imagining the event itself… “order of the day” so to speak…. the messages need to be visual, visceral, vivid and emotionally, logistically accessible to the general public. We are seeking an audience that is not just preaching to the choir …. we are seeking to educate, convince and connect our cause to the general public while bringing down the for-profit education emperors/empresses with no clothes… and we all know who they are!
• My idea is to state by state, the same afternoon, same time, across the USA…. rise up as a collective and…
• Celebrate Public Ed with key stories, testimonies from students, teachers, parents AND • Present the cold, hard facts of privatization to the general public to bring down the smokescreen created by Waiting for Superman and Rhee, etc.
• For example, the following link to an article I wrote resonated hugely with general public in Ohio because it had cold, hard facts about Ohio’s charters which the general public tax payer parent/citizen DID NOT KNOW…
https://dianeravitch.net/2012/12/12/brilliant-opposite-day-in-ohio-with-studentsfirst/
• Think of Lisa Meyers, “Letter to America:”
https://dianeravitch.net/?s=Letter+to+America
Lisa’s letter had and can continue to have, a HUGE impact on unveiling for the unseeing, privatization brainwashed public what has happened to teachers and MUST STOP, for our Kids’ sake… for our country’s sake… for our democracy.
Please email so we can get our group up and running,
THANK YOU Friends, THANK YOU Diane,
and here is to a Happy New Year for Public Education,
Maureen Reedy
maureen.reedy@gmail.com
Parent/29-year public school teacher
Columbus, Ohio
Lots of groups exist across the country that can be networked with minimal effort! For instance, we are forming a coalition in Texas next week, bringing together the educator, parent, and citizen groups that support equitable/adequate funding, oppose all forms of privatization, and that advocate for sane and reasonable assessment/accountability policies. We will be tens of thousands strong after one meeting, and we intend to flex our muscles!
I’ll share this column too that was published this morning in the Dallas Morning News: Steve Blow: Texas Legislature deserves dunce cap for education funding
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Steve Blow
sblow@dallasnews.com
Published: 02 January 2013 11:22 PM
We’re always on guard against dangers to our children. And maybe now we should add the Texas Legislature to the list of potential threats.
Of course, that’s only if you think a good education is important for our children. And I don’t just mean our own offspring, but for every child of every background.
I read with dismay a few days ago that when the Legislature convenes next week, Republican leaders will have no plan to restore any of the huge cuts to public education in the last session.
One conservative group leader dismissed the need to restore any of the $5.4 billion, saying that public schools had already “absorbed” the cuts.
Well, yes, I suppose that’s true in the way that an amputee “absorbs” the loss of a limb and goes on living. Our schools are still open, but that’s a mighty low standard to set for an education system.
And I wonder if some don’t secretly harbor a desire to bump off “government schools” anyway. Even as public schools try to make do with the previous cuts, there is talk of draining even more money from them in this legislative session by introducing a voucher system.
“Now is the time to look at total reform in our schools. We have to start doing some things differently,” declares Sen. Dan Patrick, the new chairman of the Senate Education Committee.
For the Republican from Houston, that means vouchers — allowing students to attend private schools with taxpayers paying the tuition.
Patrick paints this as a matter of giving choice to parents. “It is immoral to say to any parent or student you must go to a poor-performing school because that’s the school in your ZIP code. That is not acceptable,” he told our reporter Terry Stutz.
It’s not acceptable and it’s also not true. State law already gives parents the right to move students from consistently low-performing schools. And on top of that, there are more than 200 tax-funded charter schools with open enrollment.
Bonnie Lesley is just flat angry about the Legislature’s neglect of public education. “Texas legislators have been very eager to hold public schools accountable. Now it’s time for the people of Texas to hold them accountable for their poor policies,” she said.
Lesley is a former teacher and administrator from Waco. She and former Waco Mayor Linda Ethridge founded Texas Kids Can’t Wait to advocate for better funding of Texas public schools.
They started out simply focusing on Waco schools after the last legislative cuts forced nine schools to close there. But their campaign soon spread statewide.
Lesley said legislators have a mandate in the state constitution to create an “equitable and adequate” funding system for public education. But she said what we’ve got is far from either.
“The system is broken in so many ways,” she said. One recent study ranked Texas 49th in per-student funding. And poorer school districts end up with even less although their educational challenges are greatest.
“In Texas, we have a huge percentage of poor kids attending poor schools,” Lesley said. “That’s a double whammy. It’s dooming those students but it’s also dooming the state’s future. I have always been proud to be a Texan, but this makes me so angry.”
School districts across Texas have sued the state, seeking to force a better funding system. And because that litigation is pending, legislators appear content to do nothing this session and let the courts have their final say, which could be more than a year from now.
“It’s like this fiscal cliff nonsense,” Lesley said. “The Legislature is going to wait to the absolute last moment to act. But kids can’t wait. They only get one childhood.”
For more information, go to texaskidscantwait.org.
Follow Steve Blow on Twitter at @DMNSteveBlow.
Time For Action Update…
Hello Friends and Patriots for Public Education,
Parents Across America, Public Schools Across America and NEIFPE (Northeast Indiana Friends of Public Education) are joining together for the first 4 state regional planning meeting for Preserving Public Education on February 23rd in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Featured speaker:
Indiana State Superintendent Glenda Ritz, newly elected pro-public education superintendent! Read more about Supt. Ritz here.
Evite below:
http://publicschoolsacrossamerica.eventbrite.com/#
Attention public education supporters in:
OHIO MICHIGAN INDIANA ILLINOIS
Would you like to join with others in our 4-state region in coordinated, collective action to support our public schools?
Parents Across America, Public Schools Across America and NEIFPE (Northeast Indiana Friends of Public Education) invites you to “Public Schools Across America,” a 4-state Regional Action Planning Meeting.
These are exciting times! Across the country, there is a rising chorus of protest against corporate-style school reform. Parents, teachers, students, principals, superintendents, scholars, school board members, civil rights lawyers and other concerned citizens are voicing opposition to the privatization of our schools which threatens the future of our children and the fundamental democratic principles upon which our system of public education is based. With “Public Schools Across America,” we hope to create a model for coordinated regional action in support of public education which may be expanded and replicated across the U.S.
• Who: You are invited! And please share this invitation with others interested in regional joint action in support of public education (even if they are not in our region – as long as they are able to get themselves to Ft Wayne).
• What: The first “Public Schools Across America” Regional Action Planning Meeting.
• Where: Ft Wayne, IN, chosen because it is located within a reasonable drive from all 4 states, and is FULL of public education activists!. We will meet at the Plymouth United Church of Christ, conveniently located at 501 W Berry Street in Ft. Wayne.
• When: Saturday, Feb 23, 2013 from 12 noon to 5 pm (snacks provided).
• Why: To share our concerns about attacks on public education, how we have addressed them locally, and to consider joint activities across our 4 state region and potentially across the United States to strengthen public education.
Thank you for all you do in support of our public schools and our children. Hope to see you in Ft. Wayne!
Julie Woestehoff, executive director, Parents United for Responsible Education (Chicago)
Co-founder of Parents Across America
E-mail: pure@pureparents.org
Maureen Reedy
Co-Founder, Public Schools Across America
Public school parent & 30 year public school teacher
Ohio Teacher of the Year, 2002
Email: Maureen.reedy@gmail.com
NEIFPE (Northeast Indiana Friends of Public Education)
http://neifpe.blogspot.com/