Come to the PEP - Closing Schools/Privatization A Bigger Threat Than Janus

If any Ed Notes readers are free tonight -- come to the PEP - join the pre-PEP rally at 5:30. A chance to thumb your nose at Farina's final PEP.

I will keep shouting this from the rooftops endlessly: That the closing of schools is politically, not educationally motivated. And further, it dovetails with the privatization movement, which is more dangerous to unionism than the Janus case -- note that there are no schools open in West Virginia, which is a right to work state. Yet they just won a 5% pay increase, more than double what they were offered.

(I imagine the response ultimately will be fast and furious -- load the state up with non-union charters and remove collective bargaining rights of teachers in whatever public schools are left standing.)

At the PEP meeting you will see some of the UFT leadership but not a massive outpouring of outrage with hundreds of UFT members, other than those being organized by MORE and AQE, which are holding a pre-PEP rally and press conference. You will see some schools filing law suits but not with the help of the UFT. The leadership either doesn't get it or is willfully turning away. They are fighting some selective battles based on where schools resist instead of taking a stand against ANY closing schools -- and ignoring the fact that they are being emptied for charter occupation in some cases or for gentrification -- while teachers are a major target.

What is ironic is how much more attention the UFT - and many of my colleagues in MORE - pay to Janus than to closing schools and the general privatization movement which is a bigger threat to unions.

Eva Moskowitz' 46 schools (and counting) plus other charters have taken away as many union jobs as the amount of dues that will be lost to Janus.

And just think of those teachers in the 13 schools about to be ATRd -- I wonder how many will be staying in the union?

MORE put this out

Come to the PEP Meeting Wed. Feb. 28

by morecaucusnyc

Murry Bertraum HS at 411 Pearl St, New York, NY

in Lower Manhattan, adjacent to the Brooklyn Bridge and City Hall

This Wed., Feb. 28, the Panel of Educational Policy (PEP ) will vote on the proposals to close 13 community schools. It is very important for as many folks as possible to attend this meeting to show support for the school communities that would be adversely affected by these actions.

There will be a press conference and rally against school closings before the PEP  at 5:30 and you can sign up to speak at the PEP at that time as well.

MORE/CASCADE (Coalition Against School Closings and Displacement Everywhere) is fighting against the current round of school closings in NYC. We are against labeling any schools as "failing," against Renewal and Receivership School programs that don't help, against targeting these schools for Charter Co-locations, and against closures. We see the connection between school closures and the privatization of our education system as well as the anti-displacement movement.

The next meeting of CASCADE,  Campaign Against School Closures and Against Displacement Everywhere. Is on March 10, at 2:30 at the CUNY Graduate Center.  All are welcome to come and strategize about how to stop school closings.