Sunday, September 16, 2012

When there's a contract, then call us maybe while NYC Parents Stand in Solidarity With CTU

Chicago teachers on strike singing a cover of "Call Me Maybe" promoting a fair contract to better our children. Special thanks to: Burr Elementary Hayt Eleme...etc.

Just take a look at how young these teachers are. Who said the yutes are not union conscious? Here we have E4E slugs. Where are they in Chicago? No matter what emerges from the contract this video is a sign of the amazing work the CTU/CORE leadership has done in a very short time. This work won't stop with the settlement.



http://youtu.be/SqXmX5caH7k

PARENT LEADERSHIP PROJECT
There's too much material coming in. Got to combine them. I'm not sure who are the folks  *** see below for background on PLP and La Union.

 but their sentiments are welcome I'm sure by the CTU.
The Parent Leadership Project and La Union in New York City stand in solidarity with the Chicago Teachers Union. Like Parents 4 Teachers in Chicago, we know that teachers’ working conditions are our children’s learning conditions. In New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been implementing similar reforms to Rahm Emanuel's in Chicago. In both cities, structures of Mayoral Control combined with federal reforms such as No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top have claimed to make schools more accountable to students and their parents.
But our experience has shown us that the opposite is true. Closing historically under-resourced schools in low-income communities of color and opening up charter schools have only increased segregation within city school districts.
Moreover, too many of our children have been shut out or kicked out of charter schools because they are English Language Learners, students with special needs, or because of zero tolerance “discipline” polices. At the end of the day, charter schools do not better serve our children, and neither does merit pay. 

We know that the single instrument of high-stakes tests does not measure our children’s capacities or learning. They also do not measure the hard work or worth of teachers. Rather, for poor communities of color particularly, tying teachers’ pay to high-stakes tests means that experienced teachers would likely be less inclined to teach in the schools and communities where they are most needed.
We need public schools that truly reflect, respect, and serve the communities that they are part of –and this requires that teachers are valued and respected as workers, that schools are well-resourced with the materials, resources, and staff that they need. Public schools can work, and do every day---but only for a small minority of the population. In these schools, classes are smaller, services are ample, and curriculum is wide and expansive. All our children deserve these conditions---and all our teachers need these conditions. This historic and brave stand by CTU is not a strike of choice as Emanuel claims. 

Rather, it’s a fight that is about our children, their futures, and dignity and fundamental rights for their teachers.
***
The Parent Leadership Project (PLP) grew out of over a decade of collaboration between the Center for Immigrant Families (a social justice community organizing center in the New York City uptown neighborhood of Manhattan Valley) and the Bloomingdale Family Program (a head start center with three sites in the same neighborhood). In 2010, the two organizations decided to combine their efforts to address the realty of segregated and unequal public schools that their constituencies have long confronted. Through combining popular education, community organizing, and advocacy with much-needed services, PLP works to build parent leadership, power, and organizing for educational justice in District 3 schools and beyond.
 
La Unión is an organization of people of the global south working to advance the social, economic, and cultural rights of the communities where we now live and the communities we left behind. The 600 members of La Unión are predominantly from the Mixteca region of Mexico and immigrants from across Latin America. La Unión is based in the neighborhood of Sunset Park, Brooklyn; one of New York City’s largest Mexican immigrant neighborhoods

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Awesome.

What a stark contrast between this and say....just about anything Unity does...

I can't help recalling the night we all walked over to Tweed after a CL meeting and Mulgrew set us up a block away from Tweed's offices. Unity passed out glow sticks before heading over and had their usual DJ spinning feel good disco classics. So pathetic. They are so pathetic.

Everyone donate to MORE. Spread the word. Miracles can happen when you plan for them and are patient and persistent.

Nikki said...

This is my video! Well, I cowrote and edited it together. Thank you for the support and for sharing it. To answer your question, we were picketing at Clark and Bryn Mawr in Chicago. It features teachers from my school, Uplift Community High School, and three elementary schools: Hayt, Peirce, and Swift.

Thanks again!

NY_I said...

Chicago schools are the most segregated in the nation. The relevance is that schools are more resource starved in the African-American and Latino south and west of Chicago than the schools in the white areas to the north.



I posted "Meet Chicago Public Schools, the Most Segregated Big City School System" documenting this issue.



The leading reference among the nine cited is a 2009 article by George Schmidt, “American Apartheid: Chicago school officials announce that 42 segregated all-black elementary schools could have been put into 'turnaround' this year, but only five were targeted.”