For a People's Board of Education -Coalition for Public Education, May 5, 2012

Saturday, May 5 - Coalition for Public Education 9:00 am - 5 pm citywide public forum for a People's Board of Education on organizing against mayoral control, DC 37 Headquarters, 125 Barclay St. at the east side of the West Side Highway (A/C/E Chambers St./WTE or 2/3 Park Row) RSVP and register at pubedco@googlegroups.com Click here to download flyers for this event. Please circulate widely.

Whose Schools? Our Schools!!

Parents, Students, Teachers, Education Workers, & ConcernedCommunity Members of New York City...Public education has been under assault by Mayor Bloomberg and hisbig business partners who have turned hundreds of billions of dollarsin public funds over to those seeking private profits!

These attacks are connected and affect all of us!!!For more than 10 years, Mayor Bloomberg 

-through his chancellors and Panel for Educational Policy ( PEP ) -has turned a deaf ear on the protest of parents, students, and educational professionals giving them no say in what happens in public schools.

 For Parents this has resulted in...

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Over 100 school closings and counting.

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Forced co-locations and the redirection of resources to Charter Schools who often don't serve the same populations.

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Continued failure to produce college ready high school graduates; only 13

%

are college ready for Black and Latino students.

 For students this has resulted in...

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Increased class sizes and budget cuts for in school and after school programs.

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Continued growth in use of high stakes testing and endless test preparation.

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Narrowing of the curriculum; loss of science, humanities, and other electives.

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Culturally unresponsive curriculum that doesn't reflect your needs or concerns.

For teachers and educators this has resulted in...

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Continued attacks on job security and worker protections.

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Mass firings and school shutdowns under the guise of "turnaround schools".

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Public shaming and attacking of teachers using discredited teacher data reports

( TDR )

.

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Tying teacher evaluations to high stakes test and arbitrary evaluation criteria.

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Continued disappearance of Black and Latino teachers from the profession.

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Loss of professional autonomy and the "de-professionalizing" of teaching.

It’s time to organize a citywide fight -back to end Mayoral Control!We are coming together to build a People’s Board of Education made up of parents, students and educators. We can move forward united to build a collaborative   powerbase dedicated to a human rights based education system for all of our children.

YES WE CAN Build a People's Board of Education!!!

Join us at the First People's Assembly for Public Education