Tune in!
|
PUBLIC EDUCATION GROUPS WILL HOST TOP DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES AT 2020 PUBLIC EDUCATION FORUM MSNBC Will MODERATE AND LIVESTREAM PITTSBURGH FORUM |
|
PITTSBURGH—The Network for Public Education Action will join with other public education groups, unions, civil rights organizations and community groups to host a forum for Democratic presidential candidates on Saturday December 14 in Pittsburgh. The “Public Education Forum 2020: Equity and Justice for All” will be held at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh. MSNBC will moderate and exclusively livestream the forum on public education issues. Ali Velshi, host of “MSNBC Live,” and Rehema Ellis, NBC News education correspondent, will serve as the forum’s moderators, together interviewing candidates on priority issues facing students, educators and parents in public education today. The event will be streamed live on NBC News Now, MSNBC.com and NBC News Learn, and will be featured across MSNBC programming. Each candidate will provide opening remarks and then answer questions from Velshi and Ellis, forum attendees and others from across the country who submitted questions.
WHO: Alliance for Educational Justice American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees American Federation of Teachers Center for Popular Democracy Action Journey for Justice Alliance NAACP National Education Association Network for Public Education Action Schott Foundation for Public Education—Opportunity to Learn Action Fund Service Employees International Union Voto Latino
WHAT: Public Education Forum 2020: Equity and Justice for All
WHEN: Dec. 14, 10 a.m.
WHERE: David L. Lawrence Convention Center
|
Diane Ravitch's blog 
check out the FAIR article —
Thank you. I saw it. Will post
Can’t wait for this!
Congratulations to Network for Public Education for its inclusion in the event and especially to Diane for making public education a priority for candidates.
Thank you for the reminder. I’m looking forward to it.
I have something I’d like to share with you. If you get our mutual friend, Larry Lee’s Education is Everyone’s Business on Facebook, then you will already know about this.
In March of 2020, my state, Alabama, will hold a a statewide vote on whether to keep our elected state school board or go to an appointed state school board of which all members must be confirmed by the state Senate. The Senate majority leader, Del Marsh, sponsored the bill and all of the senators approved. So basically, I would no longer be able to vote for the person I would like to represent my district and the Republican Senate would decide thereby putting the education of our students in their hands. (I’m not going to list the ridiculous things Senator Marsh has pushed on us in the past.) Larry did a poll of his followers to see where they stand on the issue and 65% have no confidence in the Senate to do this adequately. In addition, he gave us the contact information for all of the senators. So, I wrote to my Senator who had been a Democrat and now is a Republican since they finally accepted him into the party. I will also say that he has always been very supportive of public education, but I think he is feeling pressured to follow the party line even though he won’t admit it. In his response to me he stated:
“If a local community wants an elected school board they can vote no. If the statewide vote passes and a local community still wants one, they can get a local constitutional amendment and vote for it.”
What??? Where did he get that this vote is about local school boards? The bill is about the state school board and no where mentions local school boards. Ugh, and as Larry mentioned to me personally and in his post on the Facebook group, “And we should turn over control of our schools to folks like this?”
Thanks for writing about Alabama.
Larry Lee is my trusted correspondent in Alabama but I am not on Facebook so missed that post.
It is obvious that the governor wants to have an appointed state school board so he and the good old boys in the State Senate can control it.
You can be sure it will be a board that is hostile to public schools, as that is the path on which white Southern Republicans (and also white Republicans in the Midwest and many other states) have set their path.
Fight to keep an elected board.
It may not be everything you want, but at least the public will be its master, not the Governor and Legislature.
You’re right on point and I do and will stay active in politics by contacting my representatives and signing petitions. Our governor is Kay Ivy and, while she’s not as bad as some governors we’ve had – Bentley for one, she stands firmly with her party. Of Roy Moore she said that she had no reason to not believe the women who told what he did to them, but Moore was the party representative so of course she voted for him. Thank G-d for Doug Jones who I hope and pray will be re-elected but with the mindset down here, I just don’t know!
Florida is also trying to consolidate power at the top through appointments, not elections. The few remaining elected superintendents are being phased out along with reduced power of school boards. DeSantis is trying to impose an eight year limit on the amount of time any individual may serve on a school board.
It’s horrible to see this happening.
This is 10 AM ET, correct? &–will it be broadcast ON MSNBC, as well?
It will be live streamed on MSNBC.
Not sure if that means “on the air”
I am going to share this notice on social media. I hope that others with do the same, and I hope it will be on MSNBC as well.
Of course I posted it at Oped News. https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/A-Forum-for-Democratic-Can-in-General_News-Community_Diane-Ravitch_Education_Public-Schools-191208-400.html#comment751464