Emily Gasoi is running for a seat on the D.C. State Board of Education. She co-authored a book recently with Deborah Meier called ”These Schools Belong to You and Me.”

DFER has funded her opponent. They are outspending Emily 4-1. Please help her. Let’s crowd source her campaign with whatever you can afford to donate. She is far better equipped to serve the children of D.C. than her DFER-funded opponent, who will push more charters (the city’s schools are already 50% charter). Emily has promised to end the Rhee teacher evaluation system IMPACT. DFER favors more top-down punishments for teachers.

This is her website:

https://emily4education.com

My friend Joan Snowden in D.C. writes:


Dear Friends

I hope this note finds you well after a hot but enjoyable summer. I am writing because I need your help. My dear friend Emily Gasoi is running for a seat on the DC State School Board of Education from Ward 1. Emily is an accomplished educator, DC parent and social activist. She has a PhD in education policy, teaches at Georgetown University, runs a non-profit called Artful Education and previously trained teachers in DC at the Center for Inspired Teaching. Her most recent book, co-authored with world renown educator and MacArthur Prize winner, Deborah Meier, “These Schools Belong to You and Me-Why We can’t Afford to Abandon our Public Schools” makes an important and compelling argument on why we must stop the privatization of public education.

This is a critical election for the DC community. Privatizers have designs on our schools. Privatizing the schools in the Nation’s capitol would be a feather in their cap. Despite these privatizers best efforts, report after report has indicated that the hoped-for education miracle under Mayoral control and other policies have been a bust. Finally members of the DC Council and others are now beginning to listen to parents and teachers about what is wrong and what better reforms would look like. We are starting to have a more honest conversation about whether the top-down, standardized test-driven strategies long pursued by DC “reformers” are the right ones.

DC needs an educator and parent on the State Board now more than ever. But Emily’s challenger is a bank manager with absolutely no education experience and no children in the DC system. Until very recently he served on the board of Directors for DFER (Democrats for Education Reform-DC). If you don’t know about DFER, this link should help. Wall Street hedge fund managers started DFER in 2008 to promote the privatization of public education in key districts nationally and to counter the influence of teacher unions. They overwhelm local elections with outside cash. With DFER’s help, Emily’s opponent has already raised $60,000 for this race. Emily needs help to counter this negative, outside influence. You can be a big help.

Emily is the experienced educator, parent and underdog candidate. She may not have a big political machine behind her, but she is well organized, has the support of an army of committed parents and educators and is a serious contended.

Please join us 6-7:30 on Thursday, September 20, 2018 at my home in D.C. to meet Emily. If you can’t make it, please contribute to her campaign. She needs your support so that she can print literature and build out her campaign infrastructure to assure a win. If you can, please make a contribution Here. The maximum amount is $200 per contributor, which means she needs as many people contributing at that level as possible. Please share this request with your networks.

We must stop privatization efforts and preserve public education in the District of Columbia. Please get involved and enlist your friends. Thanks in advance.

Please RSVP to j-snowden@rcn.com. I look forward to seeing you on the 20th.

Joan Baratz Snowden