26 COURT ST AT BOSTON SCHOOL COMMITTEE BUDGET VOTE
COME AND PLAN THE NEXT PHASE -- TAKE IT TO THE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL!
RESIST the School Budget Cutting Process!
Take Action to Defend Public Education
FIGHT BACK Against the SCHOOL CLOSINGS and ATTACKS ON PUBLIC EDUCATION AND DESEGREGATION AND STUDENT SERVICES!
NO SCHOOL CLOSINGS!
NO MORE CUTS!
SAVE OUR SCHOOLS! The Future of our children is at risk
The Black Educators Alliance of Massachusetts has filed a discrimination complaint with the Office of Civil Rights of the Federal Department of Education to fight back against the Boston School Department's plan to close or merge 18 schools this fall (see their press release and the letter from the DOE OCR below). Now the School Department is in the midst of a Budget process to cut $60 million from the school department budget, and reinstitute racist segregation and neighborhood schools, denying the children of Roxbury Dorchester and Mattapan of access to the quality opportunities that students in other neighborhoods have access to.
the School Committee has voted on the budget, but the power is with the Mayor and the City Council! We have just begun to fight!
Slated to be closed: Fifield Elementary, Middle School Academy, Faragut Elementary and Agassiz Elementary, in addition to the East Zone Early Learning Center, the Gavin Middle School, the Roger Clap and Ralph Waldo Emerson elementary schools, the Engineering School, and the Social Justice Academy and moving the Community Academy of Science and Health
To be merged (involves program cuts): Lee Academy, Lee Elementary, Alleghieri, Umana, Urban Science Academy, Parkway Academy of Technology and Health, Brook Farm Business and Service Career Academy, Media Communications Technology High School, Excel High School, Monument High School
Letter from Federal Dept of Education Office of Civil Rights accepting BEAM's Federal Discrimination Complaint against Boston Public Schools School Closing Plan
Mission Statement for the Coalition for Equal Quality Education:
"The Coalition for Equal Quality Education is dedicated to building a parent, student, teacher, community, and labor led coalition to strengthen public K-12 education throughout Massachusetts. The Coalition will accomplish this by demanding full funding and resources for public schools; organizing for the elimination of the opportunities to learn (achievement) gap; stopping the privatization of public education via charter schools; and defend the union rights of public school workers – teachers, paraprofessionals, clerical workers, bus drivers, custodians, monitors, and administrative staff. All youth have a right to an equal quality public education."
Sign the ONLINE PETITION: Tell the Mass Legislature, Gov. Patrick, Mayor Menino, Superintendent Johnson, Boston School Committee and Boston City Council: No to Charter Schools! Equal Quality Public Education for All Massachusetts School Children!
On June 3, 2009 several hundred students, parents, teachers, staff, school bus drivers, & members of the community surrounded the Boston School Committee at their meeting, forcing Menino and the School Committee to postpone their 5-zone plan to further re-segregate the Boston Schools.
May 14, 2009 - Community Summit Equity & Access to a Quality Education is a Right!
On May 14, 2009 approximately 200 hundred parents, students, teachers, community activists, and trade unionists held a Community Summit at Roxbury Community College to discuss and organize a fightback against the attempts by Menino and the Boston School Committee to re-segregate public schools in Boston. Called by the Coalition for Equal Quality Education this Summit announced plans for a demonstration at the Boston School Committee (26 Court St.) on June 3 at 5:30 pm to demand Equity & Access to a Quality Education is a Right! Stop the Re-Segregation of the Boston Public School System! Excellence & Equity for all students in all schools! Funding for Programs and Staff (no layoffs)!
The Coalition for Equal Quality Education includes: Black Educators’ Alliance of Massachusetts (BEAM); Work-4-Quality Schools; Boston Parents Organizing Network (BPON); USW L. 8751 Boston School Bus Drivers; Councilors Chuck Turner, Charles Yancey, and Sam Yoon; Minister Don Muhammad; Bail Out the People Movement; Women’s Fightback Network; New England Human Rights Organization for Haiti; Bishop Felipe Teixeira, OFSJC; Community Change; Fight Imperialism, Stand Together (FIST); Union of Minority Neighborhoods
Black Educators’ Alliance of Massachusetts (BEAM); Work-4-Quality Schools; Boston Parents Organizing Network (BPON); USW L. 8751 Boston School Bus Drivers; Councilors Chuck Turner, Charles Yancey, and Sam Yoon; Minister Don Muhammad; Bail Out the People Movement; Women’s Fightback Network; New England Human Rights Organization for Haiti; Bishop Felipe Teixeira, OFSJC; Community Change; Fight Imperialism, Stand Together (FIST); Union of Minority Neighborhoods
VIDEO of 5/11 Coalition for Equal Quality Education Press Conference!
Black Educators’ Alliance of Massachusetts (BEAM); Work-4-Quality, Fight-4-Equity; Boston Parents Organizing Network (BPON); USW L. 8751 Boston School Bus Drivers; Councilors Chuck Turner and Charles Yancey; Minister Don Muhammad; Bail Out the People Movement; Women’s Fightback Network; New England Human Rights Organization for Haiti; Bishop Felipe Teixeira, OFSJC; Community Change; Fight Imperialism, Stand Together (FIST); Union of Minority Neighborhoods
