The Attack on Public Education & the "Fight Back": Allen Ruff Introduction
Channel: Paul Baker
Date: 15/09/2011

Join social justice activist educator Bill Ayers at a public forum regarding the attack on public education and the ways to "fight back".

Joining Ayers to discuss pending state legislation and privatization at the local level will be long-time public education advocate and Progressive Magazine contributor Rebecca Kemble and community activist Veteran for Peace, Will Williams.

Our public schools are under attack by various right-wing forces at the national, state and local level in the guise of "school reform". A concerted assault on teachers, teachers' unions, teacher education, schools, and most significantly, the kids themselves is well underway.

The agenda of the powerful with respect to schools is all too apparent. We find: privatization; drastically lowered expectations for students and families; the demonization of teachers; zero-tolerance as a cat's paw for surveillance and control; a sort-and-punish testing regime; a culture of obedience and conformity; and a narrowing definition of learning as job-training and education as a product to be bought and sold in the market.

Here in Wisconsin, Republican legislators have introduced a number of bills to cripple public education and further the for-profit agenda of those who would drain public school coffers to open more charter and voucher schools. In Madison, a proposed "Preparatory Academy," being sold as "the solution" for "at risk" youth of color, will take away approx. $27 million over a five year period from a school district serving some 24,000 serve a mere 450 select students. This, at a time when programs serving those most in need in the district are being cut to make up for already existing shortfalls as further reductions come from the anti-public school state administration.

The time for an organized "fight-back" to defend public education is now. A large scale public mobilization demanding the preservation and support of our schools is necessary to defeat this offensive from the right. Come learn about the issues to organize for action.

Attend this Public Forum and Join the "Fight Back". Defend Public Education, Our Free and Democratic Public Schools.

Sponsored by: Solidarity-Socialist Feminist Anti-Racist Organization; Union Trabajadores Inmigrantes (UTI); Rainbow Bookstore Cooperative, Madison Autonomous University (MAU); Wisconsin Resists; Socialist Alternative; Wisconsin Resists; (Additional endorsements to be added.)