Part 1 -- Possibility

As I announced yesterday, we are moving this blog to a new livelier format at Participatory Democracy and Public Education.  I want to take the opportunity of this last blog to share my sense of where Public Education and the movements for human rights in general, are going. 

It’s a time of Possibility and Promise:

It’s a time of possibility when immigrant students at risk of deportation occupy President Obama’s campaign office and threaten to do so until the election -- and then win a major first step in immigration reform for students.  This is the first major opening for the immigration movement in years.

It’s a time of hope today when students are occupying universities demanding change in the student loan system that makes college inaccessible to so many and leaves so many others indebted to the banks for decades.  It gives us hope that students can see the connection between their economic plight and the larger economic system.

It’s a time of anticipation when teachers around the world are protesting education cuts.  Below is a photo I took in June of a school in Pamplona Spain.

It’s a time of hope when students in Chile are rising up against the privatization of their public schools and colleges.

It’s a time for participatory democracy as the independent media movement grows and students are able to start democratizing the media. With the use of mobile phone technology in the hands of student activists, this is very hopeful development. 

It’s a time of hope when we in the US are becoming clearer about what works in the highest performing educational countries and provinces around the world:

• Universal high quality preschool (in fact, from birth all the way to college);
• Highly respected teaching profession, universally well paid teachers (with teachers in the poorest neighborhoods getting paid the highest - in Singapore it is seen as an honor to teach in low-income and immigrant communities); and
• Equitable funding.

One of our readers, Damon Douglas, sent me an article saying, “I’m sending this article because the author realizes that systemic change is needed in education...”  The article, by Marc Tucker at Education Week is part of a growing realization that we, the US, cannot get to our education goals by tinkering with small programs.  Tucker writes,

“The essentials of the strategies used by the top-performing countries to get to the top of the world's education league tables are not mysterious. They put more money behind their hardest-to-educate kids and less behind their easiest-to-educate, the opposite of what we do... 

They require their prospective teachers to spend at a least a year mastering the craft of teaching before getting licensed, and then typically apprentice them to a master teacher for a year after they've been hired for their first job. We celebrate programs that pretend to teach teachers the craft of teaching in a few weeks and we don't even have people called master teachers in most of our school districts, never mind assign them to the preparation of new teachers. They pay their beginning teachers at about the same level as their beginning engineers, which is only a dream in the United States...

[We] will have to accept the fact that the only way to attain [our] goal is to reshape the whole system, following the examples of the nations that continue to outpace us every day...”

I am hopeful because I have visited schools in Ontario and saw how they changed their system in just 5 years -- and I know as a country we have made similar changes, turned around our educational system, and narrowed the opportunity and achievement gap from the 1950s to the ‘80s.  Many of my colleagues have been to Finland and Singapore: these schools give me hope as well.

It’s a time of promise when young gay and lesbian children can see marriage as a right for them when they grow up.

It’s a time when Black and Brown parents can see their children growing up with the fruits of the civil rights movement and can see a person of color in the white house.

There are many promising places for action which we will explore further in future blogs:

• Statewide protests in school districts and university (for example in NY and CA);
• Parents occupying and protesting schools being shut down across the country;
• The National Student Bill of Rights;
• Progressive labor unions (for example in Chicago and LA); -- we can’t build transformative social movements without talking about the political economy and its implications for racism and sexism and how they and inequality are perpetuated by capitalism
• The Dreamers and the student immigrant movement;
• All the protests against the shooting of young men of color and prison reform;
• The independent media movement and the media emerging from young people and many supporting their media and helping them communicate and work with the pain they are suffering, and
• All the conversation and mobilization like Occupy that focus on the material conditions being so bad and people losing their homes.

All the things mentioned also point to this being a time of anger and challenge.  I will explore these challenges in The State of Public Education Part 2.

This will be my last piece at Education Week. Thank you again to all of Education Week’s staff for their support and helping launch us.  Please join our conversation at Participatory Democracy and Public Education.  I will simultaneously be reposting this blog at this new home which is already generating many engaging comments.

Posted by Greg Jobin-Leeds at 3:21 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Dear Readers,

As mentioned in previous blog posts we are moving this blog today to a new home:  Participatory Democracy and Public Education.  The new blog will host an active discussion format among the four of us -- Bryant, Saulo, Patrick and I.  Please join in on our conversations there.

We want to thank Education Week for hosting us and providing us with a platform and insight and readers.  We had originally imagined 6 months at Education Week and it has been 9.  We are grateful for their invitation and start in the blogosphere. 

In making this transition, we have thought much about what our larger vision has been for Democracy and Education.  We are in this work: to build a transformative movement that will make the educational and economic system more equitable. 

Our blog work at Education Week (and now at Daily Kos) has been to build a conversation about transformative movements and public policy with potential allies.
We are getting to our larger vision by doing 6 actions.

1. Through stories and ideas, connecting with our audience: 
   (our audience is students, activists, funders, teachers and progressives who we are connecting with horizontally and vertically, across generations and fields; among progressive sectors not engaged in education reform and those involved in education);
2. Engaging our audience and getting their comments to help us catalyze each other’s thinking:
   (getting ideas, stories and theories of change to create conversations that are smarter, more spirited and grounded that will help foster more cutting edge and efficacious work);
3. Creating a space so we all can take a moment to step back out of the trenches and engage in conversations bridging theory and practice (praxis):
   (for example students or teachers sharing stories and stepping back from their struggles in high school or activists from their movements or funders and their strategies);
4. Sharing our knowledge on how others create change:
   (and showing how others are getting involved today, have built transformative movements in the past and are creating alternatives both in the US and around the world);
5. Pointing out the inequities in the US system education, economic and political system: 
   (and showing how education is both a microcosm and the cutting edge of the larger economic system);
6. Giving our reader/partners specific opportunities to act and participate:
   (Providing links and being a hub among a network of hubs for people to join movements).

By doing all these things we are getting to our goals - here are the ABCs:

1. Amplify activists', students' and educators' thinking about what is happening and what is possible,
2. Build relationships among a wide range of partners; and,
3. Collaborate in building the public and political will necessary to imagine and push for a more participatory, equitable education and economic system. 

Ultimately, we recognize that a transformation of the education system will not take place in the absence of an authentic social movement. And joining a movement is more of an action than reading a blog on the web. The web can connect, amplify, inform but to join you also have to get off the web and get with people in the classroom, out on the streets, occupying schools and homes and campaign offices.

We will continue to write about activism, education reform and our theories of successful social movements.   Our Democracy and Education blog has been and will continued to be a place where folks can learn about movements.
Please join us and comment at our new website http://participatory-democracy-and-public-education.dailykos.com/ or email me at  gjl.democracy.education@gmail.com. 

Many thanks!
Greg, Patrick, Bryant and Saulo

Posted by Greg Jobin-Leeds at 9:07 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

In this post I wish to share an insightful Vimeo presentation on the political and ideological reasons for the onslaught against public education by Brian Jones, a teacher in NYC who has been one of the leading voices against corporate charters and the attacks on teachers and their unions. I specify "corporate charter" to differentiate from the schools in NYC, like Central Park East, which are alternative schools within the public system. N Alexander wrote the text below. -- Saulo Colon

Still Separate, Still Unequal: Structural Racism, Class Reproduction and The Attack on Public Education, with Teacher-Activist Brian Jones

Public education for all is under an unprecedented attack. The powerful venture capitalists and right-wing foundations who want to privatize and make profits off of our public schools are using many different means: charter schools, mayoral control, high stakes standardized testing, school closures, merit pay and attacking teacher unions are all a part of this coordinated and ideological assault.
Often, these "reformers" claim that the sweeping changes they want will bring genuine educational justice for communities that have long been underserved -- especially for poor and working-class African American and Latino families.

But will privatization actually create racial and economic justice for these families and their communities? Will these "reforms" strengthen the educational rights and capacities of students and parents, or weaken them? Will turning education over to the profit-motive "free market" lead to less segregated schools, or more so? Who is behind the effort to privatize education and why are they pursuing these changes?
Is there an alternative way to reform and better our public schools?

These and other urgent questions concerning education and democracy are discussed by NYC public school teacher and activist, Brian Jones.

Brian Jones is a teacher, actor, and activist in New York City. He is the co-narrator of the film, The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman, and a contributing author to the book Education and Capitalism: Struggles for Learning and Liberation (Haymarket Books).

Posted by Greg Jobin-Leeds at 1:31 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

One reader sent me the NewsObserver link below.  A for-profit company has succeeded in maneuvering the Cabarrus County, NC school board to create an online Charter School.  This is also happening in Pennsylvania and other parts of the county where corporations are taking public dollars to make profits using unsuccessful methods.  Common sense clearly says that it is not good for a young child to be left at home alone in front of a computer, with no opportunities to play with other children, no gymnasium, and no playground. 

We know this is not the best for our young children.  But the company is doing very well.  As a society, we're moving away from what we know is best for kids and schools.  Instead we are moving toward profit making and more unproven charters.

But the story, as you can read in the attached NewsObserver, shows that people can band together (in this case, districts are banding together) to stem the tide.  The N.C. School Boards Association has been urging school boards to join in the group’s legal support of the state board’s appeal.

As a New York Times article states, “while the notion of an online school evokes cutting-edge methods, much of the work is completed the old-fashioned way, with a pencil and paper while seated at a desk.  Kids mean money.”  
But that’s not what kids are supposed to mean.  As a society, all our values tell us kids mean caring and growing and running around and learning.  Like plants they require nurturing and fresh air, and they need to be challenged physically, mentally and socially.  Kids mean our future.  But more and more we’re seeing barbaric (may I use that word?) corporations taking over public services and public dollars - dollars that are meant for the common good.  Our common government dollars are being put into the uncaring hands of private companies.

The NewsObserver states :

“A majority of North Carolina school systems, including Wake County, are joining the State Board of Education’s effort to prevent the opening of an online charter school that could divert more than $34 million a year in taxpayer dollars away from traditional public schools.

Charter schools operate independently of local school districts, but the districts must pass along to charter schools roughly the same per pupil funding it would provide to a school within the district.

The new charter school is projecting it will receive $6,753 per student, leading to $18.6 million in its first year and that figure will rise to $34.5 million annually in five years...   ‘I think they [the corporation] shopped around and looked for a board that might be willing to approve them,’”

The corporation will get the same amount as schools that offer playgrounds and gyms and learning specialists.

This is totally wild. Capitalism in the US is getting crazier and crazier, profiteering from children for corporate and adult personal gain. We need a separation of corporations and state (not just church and state).
It is great that the school districts around the state are banding together to block this profiteering and put children first.  The story is another example of how when concerned educators and parents come together and organize into a movement they can stop the steamroller of greedy capitalists.  There are many wealthy people who do not choose to make money at all costs.  But our system does not encourage them.  It is up to all of us to change the system, as parents and school boards across North Carolina are doing. 

Please keep sending me stories, especially ones that have examples of average people rising up against this specific brand of barbaric corporations.

Posted by Greg Jobin-Leeds at 11:32 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Dear Readers,

We will be moving this blog to a new home on July 10.  We are most likely going to move to DailyKos but, as we make this transition, I want your thoughts about:

1. Where we should move;
   
2. Our writing style.

My goals in developing the Democracy and Education blog have been to:

• Make the connections between day-to-day issues in schools and larger systems thinking about economics and policy and find out what readers think about these connections;
  
• Let readers know what they can do to become systems change agents and solicit readers’ ideas;
  
• Develop a conversation and get feedback on our ideas.  We hope to build a larger body of knowledge through this blog’s reader comments.

Our ultimate goals are to expand activists’, students’, educators’ and our own thinking about what is possible, establish collaboration among a wide range of partners, and participate in building the public and political will necessary to imagine and push for a more participatory, equitable education and economic system. 

Are you familiar with a site that would lend itself to the goals I have for Democracy and Education?

I am a fan of Education Week and have enjoyed writing here.  But as we consider what blog community might be a better fit for our goals, we have realized we are not getting as much interaction and comments as we’d like.  Readers’ tell us that we need to make our blogs shorter, more relevant, more full of love and boldness and share what they can do in their daily life to become change agents.

Do you agree? 

As we transition to a new space, we have taken an interest in the DailyKos because bloggers there get many more comments. Do you think the DailyKos will fit our goals?  Do you have other suggestions?

We hold the feedback and suggestions of our readers dear. We ask that you share whatever criticism you may have. We are building a community and we invite you to come with us. 

I would greatly appreciate your feedback on our new ideas for style and where to land our blog.  Comment below--or feel free to email me at gjl.democracy.education@gmail.com. 

Many thanks!

Posted by Greg Jobin-Leeds at 10:10 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Bryant Muldrew once again, asks some critical questions about what students are taught and equally important, what they are not taught in schools. As the Common Core are rolled out as the standard across the country and as teacher evaluations are being created, we need to keep Bryant's questions in mind and push back on the state that leaves out these pieces of the curriculum that are vital to the shaping of our democracy. -Greg

Will Common Core Standards Teach about the Struggles of Oppressed People?

Why aren’t students taught the intimate details of the on-going struggles of oppressed people for equality and justice? Students are usually given a surface level of understanding of social movements in high school. Then if a student has access to college he or she may be able to take specialized courses pertaining to the struggles of poor and oppressed people. It is important to note that many students are excluded from higher education; as a result of the economic oppression of the poor and now also the middle class, the rising costs of college education further blocks our access to specialized courses.

This exclusionary process connected to higher education is an example of why students in middle school and high school should be taught about social movements. How could a student ever challenge the systems of education as they exist now if he or she never learns and understand the many forms of opposition against oppression?

The need to learn these critical pieces of history is directly related to the establishment of this nation. Consider this: George Washington, the founding fathers, and the colonists were oppressed by taxation without representation at the time of the Revolutionary war. How many students really understand the concepts of liberty that the founding fathers proposed for this country?

Consider this: Harriet Tubman and other abolitionists were the oppressed leading to the Civil War. How many students have heard about the struggle of non-slaves who helped in that struggle? It is important to have a wide scope of understanding pertaining to history, especially historical struggle.  

Right #4 in the National Student Bill of Rights captures this philosophy: “Students and youth shall have the right to study curriculum that acknowledges and affirms the on-going struggle of oppressed peoples for equality and justice, and that addresses the real, material and cultural needs of their communities.”

If fulfilled, a right like this would create monumental changes to education and to the larger society.

--

-Bryant, thanks for raising key issues. Back when I was at Teachers College I took a course on Creativity, Critical Thinking and Curriculum Design.  This knowledge that you call for, of struggles that have changed the trajectory of our county, would give students role models of many of the most creative and critical thinkers. I hope efforts like yours to create a National Student Bill of Rights gains more and momentum and that teachers, students and activists reading this blog start to push at their own levels to get the study of movements put into their curriculum. In the same way that slaves were not allowed to be taught to read, students are excluded from learning about their own history (and algebra). Without this knowledge, it is more difficult for them to change the trajectory of their community and own lives. That is why I have been writing about what makes movements successful. I do wonder how we can change this design. And what teachers, activists, policy makers and students can do about it. It seems like this is a great moment to push as school districts are trying to figure out how to implement the Common Core. Damon Douglas in his blog: Implement the Common Core asks school personnel important questions:

• What do we want our students to learn?
• How will we know if our students are learning?
• How do we know our teaching is effective?

Some teachers and district leaders are asking the same questions as you are raising.

TO ALL OUR READERS: WE WILL BE UPGRADING OUR BLOG AND MOVING IT OVER TO A NEW SITE ON JULY 10.  PLEASE STAY TUNED.

Posted by Greg Jobin-Leeds at 2:25 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

We Welcome Derek Slaughter, a high school student from Baltimore.  He calls on a timely issue that is blocking many students’ opportunity to learn. -- Greg

Justice for All
By Derek Slaughter
Throughout my educational career, I have heard my peers say that things aren’t fair or that they have been unjustly punished in schools. Administration being overzealous to implement extreme disciplinary action is a common theme in schools throughout the country, which I have observed in my travels. For this reason the National Student Bill of Rights movement believes in installing restorative justice systems in communities and schools.

The principles of restorative justice require people to look at the root cause of the offender’s actions before the implementation of an arbitrary “punishment.” Through the restorative justice process, there is no need to enact zero tolerance: participants can see that there is a much better alternative. It is important to emphasize that students must be actively involved and engaged in restorative justice systems in order to keep these systems from returning to a regular authoritarian discipline structure.

The heart of any restorative justice system, whether in or out of school, is repairing harm and reconciling the offender and victim. Restorative justice does not equate to a lack of consequences for one’s actions. It takes a different approach to reaching a solution to root problem that causes the offense to occur, rather than solely focusing on the offense.

At my school, Heritage High, students have been trying to establish a student court that will allow students, teachers, and administrators to receive mediation between the offender and the victim. The beauty of a system like this is that students also have the liberty to take teachers and administrators to court for any offense they may commit. This will ensure that all parties in the school feel equally defended by a system they believe in. I am thrilled that the administration of the school is interested in starting the student court. (I do have one criticism, which is based on the administration’s apprehension to allow cases that involve violence to be brought to the student court. I hope that we come to a reasonable agreement for the sake of real restorative justice).

We based our student court proposal on right number 6 in the National Student Bill of Rights:  Students and youth shall have the right to establish systems of restorative justice in schools and communities, shall not be excluded from educational opportunities except by a jury of their peers, and shall not be charged for crimes as adults until the age of 18.

--

Derek’s message could not come at a more timely moment.  There is a growing movement across the country to advocate for an end to out-of-school suspensions based on three compelling factors:

• There is no evidence that suspending students from school is beneficial to the student’s education or addresses the state’s, district’s, schools’, or teachers’ need for supports to provide all students an opportunity to learn;
• The evidence clearly shows that those who are more likely the recipients of out-of-school suspensions are identifiable by race and gender;
• There are more educationally effective and equitable ways to address disciplinary challenges.

Students need to be in school to learn.  They have a right to an education--and a right to justice.   As the movement grows--in Heritage High in Baltimore and across the country, advocates are pushing for smart and fair disciplinary practices that do not limit a student’s learning time or discriminate based on gender and race. 

Thank you Derek for bringing restorative justice to the forefront of the discussion on alternative disciplinary strategies.  Please join the discussion.  What are other alternative disciplinary strategies?  How have justice and discipline been handled well or not well at your school? 

Posted by Greg Jobin-Leeds at 10:27 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Here's another guest blogpost by Bryant Muldrew, building on our previous hypothesis. What do you think? -- Greg

There are two major passions that can unify individuals or groups for a common goal. Commonly, people are bound together by a uniform hate towards someone, something, a group, or an idea. Conversely, love for someone, something, a group, or an idea can be a similar bond.

Unification through hate is a temporary solution to any injustice people wish to eliminate. More often than not, the bonds of hate are broken with the disappearance of the object of the hatred which makes room for the injustice to manifest again. Love, however, can be a permanent solution to any injustice provided that this love is genuine and towards to community at large.

Saulo and Greg pose an interesting hypothesis about love and its connection to strong social movements:

Hypothesis 2: Love and Boldness: Transformative change requires self-assured, daring tactics that are, at their heart, driven by love for the community of fellow humans and rage against the denial of human rights and against the system that perpetuates exclusion.

When this hypothesis is applied to the education transformation movement in America, it clears the smoke of separation that divides education advocates, educators, students, and parents. If there ever will be change in education that will endure the test of time, then the education transformation movement must rooted in love. The results of hatred towards education policy, curriculum, systematic underfunding, and like has proven not to be a sustainable source of energy for change. Typically, the hatred of these dissipates with the establishment of small policy changes. Then the injustices are incrementally reinstituted years later.

Tragically, many are subject to the influence of unified hatred because of popular propaganda. And even those who love dearly rarely speak in the language of Love and Boldness. Instead they respond to hatred and injustice with urgency. I urge that we all urgently assert opposition in love--the love for all mankind.

Truthfully, the National Student Bill of Rights movement desires to transform the education system into an institution of just practices. Each right in the National Student Bill of Rights embodies the ideology of love for youth. We boldly assert the need for students' and youths' right to a quality education to be protected by the federal government.

Posted by Greg Jobin-Leeds at 10:14 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Here is the 6th post in the discussion between Saulo and I concerning the role of leadership, organizing, and funders in bending the arc of educational history. This post involves a set of hypotheses we view as crucial and connected, that of self-emancipation and leadership from below. -- Greg

Hypothesis #3:  Bottom-up Organizing; Transformative movements Can Only be Realized with Authentic Grassroots Leadership
by Saulo Colon

“Before women gained the right to vote it took . . . 56 different campaigns for state referenda, 408 campaigns to urge legislatures to put women’s suffrage on the ballot, 47 campaigns for state constitutional conventions, 30 campaigns to urge presidential party platforms to include women’s suffrage as a plank, and 19 lobbying efforts with nineteen successive Congresses before the 19th amendment was proposed in Congress in 1919 and ratified August 26, 1920.” -- Judith Niles, Nine Women

The extensive grassroots efforts leading to women’s right to vote is a compelling portrayal of the fact that social change movements are like rivers with many tributaries. A dynamic, successful social movement is really the confluence of many movements--smaller, more local, narrower or different in focus. Another example, one local tributary of the U.S. immigrants’ rights struggle, is the Student Immigration Movement (SIM), a Massachusetts-based youth organization that uses student-led, community and electoral organizing to press for equal access to higher education.

Transformative movements emerge from a multitude of struggles, campaigns, organizing and other popular initiatives. The combination of many small victories builds the momentum for success. A movement of many movements has deeper, larger roots among the population and has a much richer base of ideas and activities that allow it to grow.

While “it takes all” to create a powerful transformative movement, the key to success is that the most excluded, those pushed to the sidelines and to the bottom need to lead. Those who are most marginalized are often the underserved, underrepresented, poor and subject to the yoke of repression on a daily basis. Movements fail when those who are most excluded are sidelined.  It is vitally important that that those who are most affected by the issues that the movement is trying to address are propelling that movement. Their perspectives, leadership, and organizations must drive and be central. In addition, their contributions should be broadly acknowledged as the movement achieves gains; their stories must not be marginalized after success.

Great visions cannot be realized without self-organizing from the ground up

Most significant structural social transformations have been largely led by those most affected by the structured inequality, whether class, gender or race based.

As Nelson Mandela explained about grassroots organizing:

“As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

The broadest-based and longest enduring transformational movements grow from the grassroots up.  In his book Why We Can’t Wait, Dr. Martin Luther King discussed how the civil rights movement affected the Kennedy presidency. While the Kennedy brothers had helped King and the Southern Christian Leadership Council early on, during the first two years of the Kennedy Administration the Kennedys vacillated on civil rights and took the Black base for granted (as Obama does now). It was only after Birmingham and the strong push from the grassroots that the Kennedy Administration responded to the call from below.

People can march against war, advocate universal healthcare, or fight for education equity without generating a “sense of movement;” most often leaders in these situations neglect the passion and intellect of those most impacted -- key ingredients in the alchemy of transformation. And the organizations they lead can sometimes be part of the problem.

Avoiding professionalization and non-profitization

Today, with the non-profitization (and accompanying professionalization) of movements, we have lost much of the autonomy of grassroots movement building. Foundations and other nonprofits have become “the environmental movement,” “the school reform movement,” or the “anti-poverty movement.” Community activism on such issues has been partially supplanted or co-opted by Washington-based organizations with recognized brand names, fundraising prowess, and an approach to social action not unlike other top-down entities. They are often led by professionals much like those in business -- executives drawing on “expert” opinions to determine how change should unfold.

Rarely do foundations fund grassroots activists and communities to build upon their self-empowerment and self-governance. Funders rarely create spaces for the inspiration and energy of those outside certain elite and/or educated circles. Social change movements do require considerable resources, but they cannot be consigned to direction by large 501(c)(3) organizations or 501(c)(4) organizations.

The leadership, membership, base, and spokespeople of a successful movement need to include those most affected by injustice: the poor, workers; youth and students; people of color, LGBTQ. Leaders must include people from the groups most affected by an issue, and must not be dominated by wealthy, educated, and well-meaning allies. The wealthy can be allies who bring resources but they have to know when and how to take a step back.

To win, successful transformative justice movements draw on strategic contributions by a diversity of people.  For example, the NAACP was created by Jews and Christians, as well as African Americans -- but its leadership remained African American. The abolitionist, yet aristocratic, South Carolina sisters, Sarah and Angelina Grimke, spoke out bravely to demystify slave owners’ claims that slavery was benevolent.  But the abolitionist movement was driven in many ways by former slaves and the sons and daughters of former slaves.

Today, we can see student led movements around the world from the Québec Student Movement led by students impacted by their debt, to the Chilean Student Movement, to Occupy on campuses led by indebted students in the US.  These movements have the potential to be transformative and bend the arc of US educational history.  They deserve our support and recognition.

Posted by Greg Jobin-Leeds at 12:01 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Over the past decade, I have been proud to work with and support the Alliance for Quality Education (AQE) in NY. This group of parents, community activists and teachers have pushed hard to make sure every student in New York State has access to an opportunity to learn. Yesterday, Billy Easton wrote a great Op-ed in The New York Times discussing how Governor Cuomo and his allies are increasing the opportunity gap for many of the state's most disadvantaged students. Tragically, but unsurprisingly, brutal budget cuts have hit poor districts much worse than middle class and wealthy ones. Simultaneously while Albany has cut off state aid, policymakers have also hobbled districts' ability to raise funds through local taxes. AQE is steadily building awareness, mobilizing parents, students, and educators. I hope they follow the good example of students in Quebec and Egypt today and students from the lunch counter sit-ins of the 60s. Austerity is not inevitable, if we build strong movements against it. -- Greg

Albany's Unkindest Cut of All

In most states, top-ranked high school seniors are shoo-ins to attend their local state universities. But that's not how it goes in New York these days. In one recent, glaring case, the valedictorian of a rural school district outside Rochester was rejected by a nearby State University of New York campus -- not because her grades were too low, but because her high school didn't offer the courses needed to compete for college admission.

Such stories are becoming increasingly common across New York State. Poor school districts are being forced to cut electives, remedial tutoring, foreign languages and other programs and services to balance budgets. Many schools in less prosperous areas face what the state commissioner of education calls "educational insolvency."

The obvious losers are students, who will be less prepared for graduation, college and their careers. But ultimately, all New Yorkers will suffer as the lack of skilled workers becomes a long-term drain on economic activity across the state.

Read more at The New York Times >

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