Archives for category: Networkfor Public Education Action Fund

Students!

Parents! Grandparents!

Teachers! Principals! School board members! Staff!

Friends!

Citizens!

Organize now for a national action against gun violence on April 20!

Take the pledge to participate in the action!

https://actionnetwork.org/forms/national-day-of-action-against-gun-violence-in-schools

Join the National Day for Action to Protect Students and Schools from Gun Violence!

No more murders in schools!

Students, teachers, parents, families, members of the community—join together, and you decide what works best in your community. Walk out, strike, sit-in, teach-in, protest, demonstrate, encircle the school with linked arms, March to your legislators’ offices. Be creative. Let your legislators and other elected officials know: It is time to act now to protect students, staff and schools.

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers. But they change nothing. What’s needed now is legislation to stop the carnage. Weapons of war belong in the hands of trained military and police, not civilians, not children.

This action is sponsored by the Network for Public Education, the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association, the BATS, and many more organizations that care about the safety of our children and our educators.

Please take the pledge to join this national action on April 20. 

https://actionnetwork.org/forms/national-day-of-action-against-gun-violence-in-schools

If your organization wants to sign on as a sponsor of the National Day of Action to Protect Our Students and Schools, please contact Carol Burris of the Network for Public Education.

Cburris@networkforpubliceducation.org

David Berliner shook everyone out of their lethargy and state of shock by proposing a national teachers’ strike. Many people loved the idea, but more than a few teachers pointed out that they would be fired if they went out on strike. Lots of people came up with alternatives. Some wanted to exclude elementary schools, but they too have suffered from gun violence. Some wanted actions that took place when school was not in session, but that was like holding a strike on weekends.  It quickly became clear that we would get nowhere if we tried to settle on one plan that was acceptable to everyone. In the end, those of us who wanted action realized that communities should crowdsource their protests and coordinate locally. There was no good reason to impose a one-size-fits-all plan on everyone.

And so we turn to you to do what is most effective for your schoool and your community. But make it loud and bold!

What matters most is to organize, plan, raise your voices, and make sure your legislators hear you.

Don’t settle for thoughts and prayers. Don’t settle for bland promises about mental health services (that are being cut). We need real change. We need to learn from nations that don’t tolerate gun violence. In the five years since the massacre of first graders and staff at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, there have been “at least 239 school shootings nationwide. In those episodes, 438 people were shot, 138 of whom were killed.” (New York Times) The slaughter of children must stop!

If you watch one video today, watch Yohuru Williams take apart the rhetoric of the reformers, piece by piece, word by word.

Yohuru gave this dynamic talk at the annual conference of the Network for Public Education.

He deconstructed Betsy DeVos’ speech at Harvard University. He gave it a close reading.

He literally brought down the house with his humor and sharp intellect.

Yohuru Williams is Dean of Arts and Sciences at the University of St. Thomas University in Minneapolis and St. Paul.

He is an expert on African American history. You have probably seen him on one of his many appearances on PBS and the History Channel.

We are fortunate that he is a member of the board of the Network for Public Education.

I was blown away by his presentation. I think you will be too!

The Network for Public Education just held its fourth annual conference in Oakland, California, on October 14-15.

It was a fabulous conference, with great speakers, roundtables, panels, and camaraderie.

I opened the conference on October 14. I introduced our wonderful board and staff (we have 1.5 staff members and hundreds of amazing volunteers).

I described what we are for and what we oppose.

If you agree with us, please join, donate whatever you can, and help us continue our grassroots efforts to strengthen and support public education.

In the days ahead, I will post all the keynote addresses. They were fantastic.

If you knew how inspiring these two days were, you will want to join us next year. I can’t give the location yet, but we will meet in the Midwest.

I write this Sunday night. I will be flying home to New York City while you read this.

It has been an exhilarating few days in Oakland.

I left NYC on Thursday, amidst a lot of anxiety about whether my flight would be canceled and whether the air quality in Oakland would be bad (my lungs are not in great shape because of a pulmonary embolism many years ago). The plane took off three hours late, and I was never so happy to board a flight even though it was delayed.

The sky in Oakland was a brilliant blue but I saw many people wearing face masks. The Marriott, where we held the conference, was giving out face masks. When I checked in, I noticed that there was another conference going on concurrently at the hotel, called the Cannabis Tech Conference. It seems the pot growers were meeting to learn about technology to grow better weed. They were not handing out free samples, but there was definitely some second-hand smoke in the air, and it was not coming from wine country.

On Friday night, Jitu Brown and I had a public conversation at Oakland Technical High School. It was recorded by KPFA, and I will post it as soon as it becomes available. Jitu led the 34-day hunger strike in Chicago to protest the closing of Dyett High School. He and 11 others did not end the strike until the mayor and his hand-picked Board of Education agreed to keep the school open. The city invested $16 Million in renovations. Jitu and the Journey for Justice demonstrated how a small number of determined people can change the world.

The next day began with a dual keynote: one by me, one by board member Yohuru Williams, historian and dean of the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis. Yohuru was brilliant! I am eager to post his funny, learned, scathing performance about “The Principles We Fight For.” It included a “close reading” of Betsy DeVos’ speech at Harvard, which was a tour de force. I’m glad I didn’t have to follow him.

I won’t attempt to walk you through the many wonderful workshops and keynotes that were available. Investigative journalist Nikole Hannah Jones gave the closing keynote. Only a few days earlier, she learned she had won a McArthur Award for her reporting on racial injustice. She made an impassioned plea to make racial integration the focus of school reform.

All the keynotes and some of the workshops were videotaped.

I will post them as soon as they are ready.

The most important things that happened at the conference were not on stage, but in the hallways, where people from across the country met others they had only heard of. We had parents, teachers, principals, superintendents, local school board members, state school board members, journalists, students. The conversations were buoyant.

No one was paid to attend. Almost everyone paid their own way. The speakers were not paid. This was truly a grassroots effort, run on a shoestring, but a very beautiful, unencumbered shoestring. Nearly 500 people came together to find comfort, fellowship, solidarity, and hope.

We sold books and T-shirts and any proceeds from those sales will be donated to relief efforts in Puerto Rico.

Judging by the enthusiastic responses of attendees, I think this was our best conference yet.

The board meets Monday to decide on the location of our next conference.

At one point in the middle of an unusually joyful workshop, I turned to Anthony Cody and said, “Can you believe we started this only four years ago”

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

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!

On Friday, October 13, join The Network for Public Education Action and KPFA radio for a critical conversation between Network for Public Education (NPE) President, Diane Ravitch and Network for Public Education (NPE) Action Board Member, Jitu Brown.

Diane Ravitch is the author of eleven books on education, including the best-selling Death and Life of the Great American School System, which sparked national resistance to corporate and market-based education “reform.” In addition to serving as President of NPE and NPE Action, Diane is a Research Professor at New York University and a historian of education.

Jitu Brown is a long-time community organizer born on Chicago’s south side. He is a product of Chicago’s public school system and a proud parent and husband. Jitu started volunteering for the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization (KOCO), the oldest black-led organizing community based organization in Chicago in 1991.

In his role as National Director for J4J, he leads an alliance of grassroots community, youth, and parent-led organizations in 23 cities across the country that demand community-driven alternatives to the privatization of and dismantling of public school systems. He has brought great energy and focus to the connection between the attacks on public education and the disempowerment of African American communities all across the country.

He was one of 12 parents, grandparents and community members who put their bodies on the line in a 34-day long hunger strike to save Walter H. Dyett High School in Chicago, the last open enrollment High School in the historic Bronzeville community.

Jitu and Diane will discuss U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ continued attempt to dismantle and corporatize America’s public education system and the #WeChoose campaign, a national coalition composed of powerful education justice organizations. The #WeChoose campaign includes: Network for Public Education, BadAss Teachers Association, Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools, The Advancement Project, the Education Justice Network, Alliance for Education, Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University, Dignity in Schools, Save Our Schools, Institute for Democratic Education in America and Journey for Justice Alliance, whose combined membership represents millions of Americans. Campaign members are joining forces to hold Congress and the Administration accountable in the upcoming education budget hearings.

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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.

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.