[mgj-announce] Reminder: Save our Schools protest Monday!

[Catherine Benedict]

Call To Action:  Stop the Plan to Privatize our Public School System


Our schools are not for sale!


Transparency Now: No backroom meetings between DC Government and 
business interests regarding our schools!

Support the grassroots initiatives for the modernization of our existing 
public schools!

WHAT: Build a levee around our public schools

WHEN:  Monday November 14.  Protest 6:00 to 7:00 pm.  (Hearing starts at 
6:30 pm)

WHERE: McKinley Tech High School, 151 T St., NE (Near NY Ave. Metro Stop )

WHY:  Because we won't be washed away!

Our public school system has been neglected and under funded for 
decades, resulting in deplorable schools that are not safe or healthy 
for DC children to attend.  Public school advocates have been organizing 
to ensure that the city uses its budget surpluses to address the 
disgraceful conditions that DC children face everyday.     But DC Public 
Schools (DCPS) and the Mayor's office have little interest in consulting 
the people of DC on this issue.  They have been having backroom meetings 
with an increasingly aggressive charter school special interests lead by 
business leaders that want to privatize our schools. 

When first introduced to DC in 1996, charter schools were envisioned as 
laboratories of innovation that would ultimately benefit traditional 
public schools.  Instead, charter schools have become Trojan horses used 
by businesses and  the far right to dismantle public school systems and 
privatize education.  This is being done in a climate of unbridled 
privatization of all aspects of our social services

DCPS is holding a series of meetings to form a Master Education Plan 
(MEP) for the public schools.  The MEP will be the framework by which 
DCPS will implement change and allocate resources over the next several 
years. Don't allow these meetings to become a rubber stamp for 
privatization. This is a call for people of conscience to come out to 
the meeting on November 14th at McKinley Tech School at 6:00 pm 
The charter school movement in New Orleans is trying to take advantage 
of the Katrina catastrophe by displacing the public school system 
there.  Yet even in the post- catastrophic conditions of New Orleans, a 
judge temporarily halted this hijacking effort because he felt that the 
people of New Orleans were not being consulted and that there was lack 
of transparency in this process.  Here in DC the same hijacking attempt 
is happening uncontested and we call on you to change this state of 
affairs.  Developers and the business community are looking to 
capitalize on the poor conditions of DCPS to take over in the form of 
Charter Schools, school closures, and consolidation.  Make your voice 
heard and tell public officials: We Won't be Washed Away!  Our Schools 
are Not for Sale!