To find the livestream, go to the Network for Public Education homepage or Facebook page.
It starts today at 8 am PST. Ends Sunday at 2 pm PST.
THAT IS 11 am EST. ENDING AT 5 pm EST Sunday
Archives for category: Network for Public Education
The conversation between Jitu Brown of Journey for Justice and I on a Friday night was videotaped and will be available soon. Jitu was extraordinary. He made me and I think every white person in the room see the world through his eyes. It was moving. This was the kickoff event for the Fourth Annual Conference of the Network for Public Education.
Jitu is one of the Great Civil Rights leaders of our time. He led the 34-day hunger strike at Dyett High School in Chicago that compelled the city not to close it but to invest in renovating it.
The events on Saturday and Sunday will be live-streamed on the Facebook page of NPE.
Starting at 10 am EST Saturday and ending at 5 pm EST Sunday.
You won’t want to miss the keynote on Sunday by Nikole Hannah-Jones, the brilliant journalist who just received a McArthur Award for her accomplishments and her potential. She speaks about 12:45-2:00 p.m. (PST).
I wish you could be here. It is a fantastic convening of people who care about public education and the future of our democracy.
Several people have written to ask whether the Network for Public Education Conference this weekend will go forward, in light of the catastrophic fires in Northern California.
YES!
Oakland is far enough from the fires to be totally safe.
The air quality might be affected, and those of us who are vulnerable will stay indoors.
I have had pulmonary issues, so I will stay in the hotel.
The agenda is sensational, and your biggest problem will be de icing which session to attend.
It will be a super gathering of the supermen and superwomen who are fighting for our children, our schools, our democracy.
See you in Oakland!
I earlier posted Steven Singer’s account of being blocked by Facebook when he tried to post a criticism of school choice.
The Network for Public Education tried to post an ad critical of school choice during “school choice week” and was permanently banned by Facebook.
Carol Burris wrote this description of our ouster:
“During School Choice Week, we rebranded the week, ‘School Privatization Week’. We were careful to make sure that the logo we created, which played off the Choice Week logo, was quite dissimilar and therefore could not be confused with the choice logo, or be in violation of copyright.
“We made it a Facebook ad. It was accepted and all was fine. Then, after a few days, Facebook refused our buys and blocked us from boosting any of our posts. We are still blocked from boosting or buying nine months later.
“I tried to contact Facebook by email. No reply. I called the number. It was disconnected. I spent a day trying to reach a human being. It was impossible. Network for Public Education is in the Facebook doghouse and we have no idea why.
“Yet Russians can place awful ads that try to sway our elections.”
An interesting series of questions:
Why does Facebook block posts and ads that are critical of School Choice?
Why do their algorithms fail to recognize ads that interfere in our elections but block criticism of School Choice?
Why do their algorithms ignore ads placed by Russian troll farms yet block ads placed by the Network for Public Education?
Is this chance, bad luck, faulty algorithms, or the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative at work?
Register for the Great Annual Conference of the Network for Public Education in Oakland on October 14 & 15.
Join the Resistance!
Meet your favorite bloggers!
Take a selfie with me and Carol Burris and Anthony Cody and your other friends and compatriots.
Learn, share, be inspired.
Join us.
Thanks to your efforts, the inaugural video about the fight to save public schools from privatization has reached over half a million viewers. In addition, it has been logged in by over a million Facebook feeds.
This is the video you shared. Please share it some more. We are aiming for one million views!
Our voices together have generated a mighty roar!
The public is waking up to the threat to their public schools.
They know that Betsy DeVos hates public schools and wants their children to go to charter schools, religious schools, cyber-charters—anything but a public school. She truly doesn’t understand the role of public schools in a democracy, nor does she have any ideas about how to improve them other than to eliminate them.
Together, we are sending her a message. The public schools belong to the public. They were paid for with tax dollars, and we are not giving them away, leasing them, or selling them off to entrepreneurs.
We will not tolerate this theft of public assets.
The public schools are a public responsibility, not a consumer good.
The Network for Public Education commissioned a series of short video clips to explain the issues in education today. The filmmaker is professional filmmaker Michael Elliot, who is a parent of children in the New York City public schools.
NPE is fighting for the future and the very existence of public education. We oppose the relentless attacks on public schools, teachers, and the teaching profession by unaccountable billionaires, entrepreneurs, and public officials like Betsy DeVos. We oppose the status quo, in which privatization is offered as the remedy for inequitably funded public schools.
We believe in the importance of democratically controlled, adequately resourced public schools staffed by professional educators. Good public schools are essential to democracy. We want to improve them, strengthen then, make them better for every child.
This short clip, in which I am the speaker, is the first of a series of eight, each addressing different reasons to fight for our schools.
The audience consists of parents, educators, and other citizens. It was filmed in a warehouse in Brooklyn.
We want our message to reach the largest possible public. Please put it on Facebook, tweet it, share it with your friends and family.
Viola Davis is one of the most gifted actors of our time. She has won the Tony Award, the Academy Award, and many other awards. She has never forgotten her humble origins and those who helped her rise to the top.
When she received the Tony award in 2010, she gave a powerful speech. She thanked God, her parents, and her teachers at Central Falls High School in Central Falls, Rhode Island. In that order.
I recall leaping to my feet when I heard her speak in 2010, because that was the very time when the city of Central Falls and the state of Rhode Island threatened to fire the entire staff of the High School that Viola Davis attended. To fire them en masse, from the principal to the lunch room staff. Arne Duncan congratulated the state officials for having the “courage” to fire everyone, and President Obama echoed Arne’s insult.
It was also the year of “Waiting for Superman,” and the corporate assault on the public schools went into high gear.
But then there was Viola Davis, thanking her teachers. I learned later that her own sister was a teacher at Central Falls HS.
But…but…but…then, Viola Davis took a leading role in the film “Won’t Back Down,” funded and produced by arch-evangelical billionaire Philip Anschutz (one of the “Superman” funders). “Won’t Back Down” celebrates the parent trigger, telling the fictional story of a parent and a teacher who were so disgusted with their public school that they gathered signatures and flipped the school over to a charter operator. I didn’t get to see the movie because it opened in 2,500 theatres (Anschutz owns the Regal theatre chain) and its receipts were so bad that it closed within a month and disappeared.
Last night, Viol Davis moderated Laurene Powell Jobs’ XQ extravaganza, which asserted that high schools are obsolete and need to be reinvented.
Viola Davis, please watch the speech you gave at the Oscars at 2010.
We need a real champion for public schools.
Trump and DeVos want to eliminate the schools that made you who you are today. Our public schools need your help. They are far from perfect. They need real reform, not a wrecking ball and disruption.
Viola Davis, help us. Join the millions of parents and educators who want better public schools.
The billionaires don’t need your help. We do. They are using you.
Join the Network for Public Education. Help the children and teachers whom the billionaires despise.
The annual conference of the Network for Public Education will take place October 14-15 in Oakland, California. There is space for only 500 people. It is nearly sold out.
Don’t miss your chance to meet your friends and allies from across the country, standing together to support public schools.
Please join us.
Please join me at the Annual Conference of the Network for Public Education in Oakland, California, from October 13-15.
It is a chance to meet some of your favorite education warriors.
Make friends, make common cause.
Join us!
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