Children are more than test scores: Dear Mr. President, Friendship does not trump Racist Policy

Thursday, January 31, 2013

Dear Mr. President, Friendship does not trump Racist Policy

Will someone please tell the President that the revolution will not be televised on CNN, or MTV. Tell him instead it's a rising chorus of discontent; reaching from sea to shinning sea. And this week it was in Washington DC where 220 African American Civil Rights Leaders called Obama's education agenda "Racist"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/29/school-closures-civil-rights-arne-duncan_n_2577003.html

Now you can talk about your Rock of Ages
Talk about Gideon
Talk about David and Goliath
But Mr. President be warned
An army of Davids' are coming.
They are marching with Save Our Schools
They are standing with Parents Across America
They are on Facebook with Testing Is Not Teaching
They are parents, students, and teachers (PCAPS ) rocking that boat of unjust school closures in Philadelphia.
They are that noble coalition of concerned citizens in NYC known as NYCoRE
They are the 140 spreading the word online and in the streets with Dr. Mark Naison
They are standing with Karen Lewis, and her glorious Chicago Teachers Union
They are writing on Teachers Letters to Obama
They are blogging with Valerie Strauss, Diane Ravitch, Deborah Meier, Anthony Cody, and Fred Klonsy
They are standing with the Garfield High School teachers in Seattle
They are students speaking up against high stakes testing in Providence, Rhode Island
They are Opting Out with United Opt Out the National Movement.
They are working to open your eyes to Secretary Duncan's lie at Dump Duncan on FaceBook
They are standing with C.O.R.E. that beautiful Caucus of Rank and file Educators in Chicago
They are parents from LAUSD calling for an end to this testing madness,
They are informing a nation of the NCLB/RTTT lies at FairTest in Massachusetts
They are CELTers writing resolutions against this insanity that reduces children to test scores at NCTE.
They are our Early Childhood Heroes at DEY (Defending the early years) labeling this madness an abuse against children.
They are standing up for equity in Selma, Alabama at the Education Summit for the Selma Jubilee,
They are in Boston with Citizens for Public Schools,
They are our old and true Social Justice Warriors at Rethinking Schools
They Are UMass Students saying No to Pearson
They are opt outers,
They are SOSers,
They are students,
They are parents,
They are Dream Act Children,
They are Latin,
They are black,
They are red,
They are yellow,
They are white, and every color in between,
They are listening to Tim and Shaun on "At The Chalk Face"
They are our respected researchers like Stephen Krashen
They are mothers and sons fighting for justice like Nancy Carsolm-Paige and Matt Damon
They are the 8000 SOSers, who marched in 2010 with Bess, Rick, Sabrina, Bob, Michael, Morna, Ruth, Amy, Betsy, Tim, and Ceresta.
They are your brothers and sisters
They have been there since the beginning with Susan Ohanian.
They are 220 African American Civil Rights Leaders in DC calling Secretary Duncan's Race To The Top Policy"Racist"
They are too many to list.
We are the masses,
crying out for justice in our public schools.
We are your people
Mr. President
suffering from an unjust education policy
one that reduces children and their teachers to data
and places for Sale signs on our local schools.

Mr. President the time has come to ask Secretary Duncan to resign.
Friendship and loyalty must not trump racist policy.

Let me hearken you back to another messager whose birthday our nation recently celebrated, Dr. Martin Luther King fought a war on poverty. We are still fighting that war. We reject President Ronald Reagan's perspective "The War on Poverty is Over, and Poverty Won". We refuse to study that lie. This isn't class warfare. This is the most righteous struggle any human being can be engaged in.
This is God's work, this is Social Justice, this is Walking in the Light of Christ.
Still Marching with Martin,
Jesse, The Walking Man, Turner