Thursday: Major City-Wide Rally to Stop School Closings, Stop Charter Takeovers, Defend Public Education, Say No to Privatization on 1/27/11

Here is the Press Advisory for tomorrow's rally. Snow will melt in time and a thousand flowers will bloom. This is the first time so many groups have gotten together to organize a rally that is truly from the grassroots. The UFT signed on as a sponsor. All sponsoring groups will have a speaker and students from Jamaica HS are expected to perform a piece from their play (Jamaica HS: The Play WAS The Thing) on closing schools.

Contact:

Sam Coleman, NYCORE/GEM: 646-354-9362

Angel Gonzalez, GEM: 917-842-0381 

Major City-Wide Rally to Stop School Closings, Stop Charter Takeovers, Defend Public Education, Say No to Privatization

When and Where: Thursday, January 27th 4:30 P.M.-6:30 P.M. at Brooklyn Bridge Park, on Centre Street, to the east of the Tweed Courthouse building.

What: On Thursday, January 27th, parents, students, and teachers across the city will join together at a city-wide rally to protest Mayor Bloomberg’s destructive education policies. The event will feature Jamaica and Queens Collegiate students performing an abridged performance of "Declassified: The Struggle for Existence [We Used to Eat Lunch Together]" which is a reinterpretation of Antigone and a candid and scathing critique of school reforms. Parents, students, and educators from schools facing closing and charter takeovers, as well as those who sponsored the event will speak.

Who: Sponsored by: The Ad Hoc Committee to Stop School Closings and Charter Takeovers, Grassroots Education Movement NYC (GEM), New York Collective of Radical Educators (NYCoRE),Coalition for Public Education/Coalición por la Educación Pública (CPE-CEP), The Manhattan Local of the Green Party of NY State, Class Size Matters, United Federation of Teachers (UFT)

Endorsing Organizations: Teachers for a Just Contract (TJC), Concerned Advocates for Public Education (CAPE), Independent Community of Educators (ICE), Center For Immigrant Families (CIF), The Puerto Rico Solidarity Network - PRSN NY, People Power Movement, Renaissance School of the Arts-M377(UFT Chapter), City-Wide Coalition for Education Excellence Now, Black Women Against Urban Youth Violence, Teachers Unite (TU), South Bronx Community Council, NY with UPR (NY with University of Puerto Rico), Dee Knight, The Independent Workers Movement/Movimiento Independiente de Trabajadores,, District Leader Chris Owens (52nd Assembly District, Brooklyn), Retiree Advocate Caucus-UFT, CUNY Mobilization Network, The Green Party of NY State, Independent Commission on Public Education (ICOPE), Radical Women, Answer Coalition, Community Education Council 1 (CEC1), Black New Yorkers for Educational Excellence (BNYEE), New Action/UFT, National Black Education Agenda (NBEA), State Assemblywoman Annette Robinson 56th AD, Youth on the Move (a Program of Mothers on the Move), PACE Network. Roots Revisited, S.E.E.D.S., Inc., The Healing Drum Collective, Batay Ouvriye (Workers' Struggle) Solidarity Network, Assemblywoman Inez Barron, Councilman Charles Barron and Operation P.O.W.E.R., Time Out from Testing, The M.A.NY

Additional Contacts:

Stephane Barile, working w/ students performing play and NYCORE: 650-218-3352

Crystal King, Parent and PA President of PS 114: 347-789-5468

James Eterno, Teacher Jamaica High School: 917-693-5013

Stefanie Siegel, Teacher Paul Robeson High School: 347-721-2152

Muba YaroFulan, Parent CPE: 347-785-3418/347-442-5134

Brenda Walker, Parent CPE: 347-583- 5925

Leonie Haimson, Parent and Executive Director of Class Size Matters: 917-435-9329