This just in.
Here is the flyer in downloadable form:
Education supporters plan huge grassroots rally at Mich Capitol June 19th
Grassroots power in action!
Please join us on the Capitol lawn beginning at 11:30 am on Wednesday, June 19th. We’re still working on lining up our speakers for the event, but we’ve already confirmed the following superstar advocates for public education:
Sen. Gretchen Whitmer (Senate Minority Leader)
Sen. Bert Johnson (D-Highland Park)
Rep. Brandon Dillon (D-Grand Rapids)
John Austin (President, State Board of Education)
Thomas Pedroni (Associate Professor, Wayne State Univ)
Superintendent Rod Rock (Clarkston Community Schools)
Jeff Kass (Ann Arbor Public Schools Teacher & Poet)
Sherry Gay-Dagnogo (Education Chair, National Congress of Black Women)
Steven Norton (Michigan Parents for Schools)
John Stewart (former member MI House of Representatives)
Mary Valentine (former member MI House of Representatives)
Stephanie Keiles (Plymouth-Canton Community Schools Teacher & Michigan Friends of Public Education)
Betsy Coffia (Save Michigan’s Public Schools)
K-12 Students Representing School Districts Around Michigan
And Master of Ceremonies … Tony Trupiano (Progressive Talk Radio Show Host/Night Shift with Tony Trupiano)
WHO ARE WE?
Save Michigan’s Public Schools is a non-partisan grassroots network of concerned citizens. Our goal is to connect parents, students, educators and communities across Michigan and raise awareness of threats to public education.
We believe a free, quality public education is the cornerstone of a democratic society. We believe every child in Michigan deserves access to equal and excellent educational opportunities through public education. We believe public education must be locally-controlled, fully-funded, delivered by highly qualified professional teachers, and devoid of corporate involvement.
To this end, we support policymakers and public officials who reject the corporate, profit-motivated takeover of public schools, massive school closures, and meaningless high-stakes testing. We support wise policies and laws that forward sound, research-based, evidence-based solutions to support and improve our existing public school system.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I will be there! Thanks for the heads-up, Diane!
awesome.
Highly needed! I’ll be there!
An awesome example of how genuine grass-roots organizing works. But there’s a companion piece DR’s readers should know about: http://www.eclectablog.com/2013/06/education-supporters-plan-huge-grassroots-rally-at-mich-capitol-june-19th-teacher-unions-media-confused.html
The right-leaning MIRS (MI Information & Research service) immediately labeled the event a “union” event, even though neither the MEA nor the MI-AFT are or have been involved. At all. When corrected, they persisted in insisting that, somehow, this must be a union-driven event, finally settling on “well, a retired MEA member we know forwarded an e-mail about the event.”
Smashing assumptions about who’s behind support for public education. Love it.
Parents are speaking out. We are fed up with the attack on our children, teachers and districts. We are fed up with our legislators choosing to fund corporate tax breaks and roads instead of our public schools. We will be there June 19 to let our voices be heard!