Day of Action for Public Education

“Public education is under attack,” comes the warning from Philadelphia in a riveting new video from community and youth organizers in that city.

Their accusations are that education policies are “an attack on poor children” … policy makers “don’t care about the students” … public education “is being defunded” … and “it’s not something specific to Philadelphia.”

Indeed, Philadelphia “is an early warning sign for America,” a former science teacher wrote recently at the progressive news site PolicyMic. Chronically low per-pupil spending – “behind suburban districts” – combined with a “powerful charter school movement” intent on privatizing schools, have eroded Philly schools to the state where basic supplies like paper, pencils, and books seem like luxuries.

It’s a story that mirrors what’s happening across the country.

Americans everywhere are seeing their local schools being ground into pieces between the twin political augers of government austerity and top-down, corporate-backed “reform.”

The Black Parallel School Board 

Southeast Village Neighborhood Association

Presents

A Community Forum featuring

Dr. Jesus Hernandez, sociology professor at UC Davis

“Residential Segregation and School Closures”  

Free and open to the public!!!

Thursday, October 24, 2013 from 5:30pm -8:00pm

George Sim Community Center, 6207 Logan Street, Sacramento, CA  95824

Our Co-Sponsors: (partial list): Stephanie Francis, Parent, African Research Institute, Alpha Academy Program , Suzanne Brooks , Concerned African American Parents of Elk Grove, Democracy and Education Institute ,  Mexican American Digital History Project, Sacramento Progressive Alliance, DSA (Sacramento), Sac Cultural Hub, Sacramento Area Black Caucus, Order Of Olufunmi , Friends of Sabeel -- Sacramento Region, Chicano Consortium of Sacramento and Sacramento City Teachers Association, Avondale Glen Elders Neighborhood Association (AGENA), Hmong Innovating Politics (HIP), Bernard A. Goldberg, Capital Region Organizing Project (CROP), Sacramento ACLU Chapter of Northern California,  Master Barber & Beauty Shop and The Talking Drums News.

House of Cards Episode 1 - "Broad's Academy of Power"

In this, episode 1 of the Badass Teacher’s House of Card Series, Eli Broad’s ideals and his intentions for the Public School System in America are exposed. Don’t believe the rhetoric and propaganda, instead do YOUR homework and follow the money trail.

Who is Eli Broad?
http://www.defendpubliceducation.net/
http://www.broadeducation.org/about/c…

Is Broad a Public School Bully in his own back yard?
http://articles.philly.com/2013-04-30…

Sacramento District Insists on closing public schools

The  Sacramento City school district is  closing  seven elementary schools, disproportionately hurting students in low-income and predominantly minority neighborhoods.

In response, twelve students and their parents filed a civil rights lawsuit, asking a federal court to block the closures. The suit claims that the Sacramento City Unified District’s decision “was motivated by an intent to discriminate against the minority populations” and will result in “a disastrous discriminatory effect on the poor, disadvantaged population which is served by these neighborhood schools slated for closure."

A lawsuit filed by parents with the help of Sacramento attorney Mark Merin on the bases of the racial and class discrimination in the decisions as to which schools to close  was dismissed by the federal judge Kim Mueller.

 Jonathan Tran of Hmong Innovating Politics, the group that organized the rally, told the June 12 rally , “The district applied an arbitrary and illegitimate standard to target schools that are predominantly high in low-income and minority populations … At the end of the day, that is unacceptable.”

Sacramento closes schools serving the working poor

Sacramento District Ignores Report Suggesting Closing Schools for Affluent White Kids, Instead Shutters Seven Schools Filled with Poor and Minority Kids

Steven Hsieh,

June 13, 2013  |  

A Sacramento city school district is poised to close seven elementary schools, disproportionately hurting students in low-income and predominantly minority neighborhoods.

In response, twelve students and their parents filed a civil rights lawsuit, asking a federal court to block the closures. The suit claims that the Sacramento City Unified District’s decision “was motivated by an intent to discriminate against the minority populations” and will result in “a disastrous discriminatory effect on the poor, disadvantaged population which is served by these neighborhood schools slated for closure."

The complaint also notes that in choosing the schools it did for closure, Unified District ignored a report by a closure committee recommending the shuttering of four different schools in “older, affluent neighborhoods,” each with a 'white' student body in excess of 40 percent of the enrolled students.”

CBS Sacramento reports that dozens of parents and students rallied outside the courthouse Tuesday. Jonathan Tran of Hmong Innovating Politics, the group that organized the rally, told the station, “The district applied an arbitrary and illegitimate standard to target schools that are predominantly high in low-income and minority populations … At the end of the day, that is unacceptable.”