I have a bell, I have a hammer, and two feet made for walking.

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Shout on every corner,

I am one man walking in the name of love to DC,

Shout it in every Church, Synagogue, Temple, and Masque,

Shout it in the halls of congress,

Shout it in the senate,

Shout it outside the White House,   

That silence and apathy have no hold on me,

Ring every bell,

Tell it on every mountaintop,

Unlike our nation's Hedge Fund managers, this walking man is not afraid our children won't be able to compete,

Tell every child, parent, and teacher,
I see a brighter day coming,

Tell them I am walking to help America understand that it is immoral for 49 states to spend more money on their wealthy schools than their poor schools.

Tell everyone I am walking 400 miles to break that deafening silence coming from our United States Department of Education's immoral policies hiding a public school system rooted in inequality,

Tell everyone I am walking for every child, teacher, and parent being blamed for the failures of our leadership to do the right thing,

Shout it loud and clear, this man is walking for our children and every teacher being labeled failure, 
This man is walking, because Washington DC lacks the moral will to give every child an equal start and equal finish.

Oh, shout it out brothers and sisters,

The Walking Man is coming,

Tell them that he has a bell,

Tell them he has a hammer,

Tell them he has a heart full of love,

A spirit full of hope,

Tell he can't be broken,

He can't be stopped,

He rides a just wave,

He fears no evil,

He walks inspired by that righteous shepherd who led his people from a Pharaoh’s bondage.

He rejects reducing our children, their teachers and our local schools to test scores,

He rejects a United States Secretary of Education Arne Duncan's policies of dog eat dog,
That our poor schools must complete against each other in his sick Race To The Top's lie,
He rejects competition without equity has any place in a nation who loves justice and fairness. 

Tell it from every mountaintop that he is not alone,

The people reject selling our local public schools to the highest bidders,

The people reject standards that hold not one politician accountable,

The people reject standards that hold not one policy maker accountable,
The people reject standards that hold not one governor accountable, 

The people reject that equity comes in spending more on your wealthy schools than your poor schools.

I am one man walking to DC in the name of love,

Jesse
Source: (Education Week's 2015 Quality Counts report only Alaska spends more on it's poor schools than it's wealthy schools)

If you want to know what the Walking Man was listening to on his walk today...it's If I had a hammer song by Trini Lopez

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPtJtpTuMdI

Going back to Education Summit in Selma for the Voting Right 5oth Anniversary in 12 days. I will be joining my sisters Ruth Rodriquez and Ceresta Smith, Alabama BATs, SOSers, BTCs,and UOOs to tell it on every moutaintop that it is immoral for 49 governors to spend more money on their wealthy schools than their poor schools.
Sing that old song:
Ain't noboy gonna turn me around,
Ain't gonna let nobody turn me around
Turn me around, turn me around
Ain't gonna let nobody turn me around
Keep on a walking, keep on a talking
Gonna build a brand new world

Ain't gonna let the Secretary of Education Arne Duncan turn me around
Turn me around, turn me around
Ain't gonna let the administration turn me around
Keep on a walking, keep on a talking
Gonna build a brand new world

Ain't gonna let no education deformer turn me around
Turn me around, turn me around
Ain't gonna let no first strike policy turn me around
Keep on a walking, keep on a talking
Gonna build a brand new world
Ain't gonna let Indira no governors turn me around
Turn me around, turn me around
Ain't gonna let billionaires boys club turn me around
Keep on a walking, keep on a talking
Gonna build a brand new world.

Got my moral walking shoes on people,
And ain't nobody stopping this walking man,
Jesse

Just in case people are wondering what the walking will be listening to walking across the Edmond Pettus Bridge? It ain't nobody gonna turn me around by Sweet honey in the rock

https://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A0LEVymeEuZUSigA51Ol87UF;_ylc=X1MDOTU4MTA0NjkEX3IDMgRmcgMEZ3ByaWQDVGphN201REdSeHlrckFlblNKem5TQQRuX3JzbHQDMARuX3N1Z2cDNARvcmlnaW4Dc2VhcmNoLnlhaG9vLmNvbQRwb3MDMQRwcXN0cgNhaW4ndCBub2JvZHkgZ29ubmEgdHVybgRwcXN0cmwDMjMEcXN0cmwDNDAEcXVlcnkDYWluJ3Qgbm9ib2R5IGdvbm5hIHR1cm4gbWUgYXJvdW5kIGx5cmljcwR0X3N0bXADMTQyNDM2NDIxNw--?p=ain%27t+nobody+gonna+turn+me+around+lyrics&fr=sfp&fr2=sa-gp-search&iscqry= 

Walking to DC opposing the immoral ground of school choice policies

My response to Connecticut Governor Malloy budget increases for charter schools would be the same response for any state increasing it's funding for charter schools. Their is no data to support them as education reform successes. 
It is obvious our politicians, policy makers, and their education reformer pals are not reading the research on choice schools and charters. The Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles from UCLA 40 states review of school choice impacts 2010 reported that charter school actually increase racial isolation. See:
Frankenberg, E., Siegel-Hawley, G., Wang, J. (2010). Choice without Equity: Charter School Segregation and the Need for Civil Rights Standards. Los Angeles, CA: The Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles at UCLA; www.civilrightsproject.ucla.edu. 

Perhaps the reading level is too high for these so-called education reformers to understand?
"Executive Summary
Seven years after the Civil Rights Project first documented extensive patterns of charter school segregation, the charter sector continues to stratify students by race, class and possibly language. This study is released at a time of mounting federal pressure to expand charter schools, despite on-going and accumulating evidence of charter school segregation."....
"Their analysis of the 40 states, the District of Columbia, and several dozen metropolitan areas with large enrollments of charter school students reveals that charter schools are more racially isolated than traditional public schools in virtually every state and large metropolitan area in the nation."

As for Connecticut Connecticut Voices For Children issued their 2014 report: 

Choice Watch: Diversity and Access in Connecticut's School Choice Programs Robert Cotto, Jr., Ed.M. & Kenneth Feder

http://www.ctvoices.org/publications/choice-watch-diversity-and-access-connecticuts-school-choice-programs

Let me make this simple, school choice provides cover for Connecticut being one of 49 states who spend more money on their wealthy schools than their poor schools." This is a moral struggle with immoral policy that fails to provide all our children with an equal start and finish in our public schools. Education reform should begin with providing children in all 50 states an equal start and finish not with gimmicks. Study after study reveals one simple finding Choice without equity is a failure, and that our political leaders either can't comprehend data, or they just don't care. If they don't care then everything they are doing is rooted in immorality.
One Man Walking To DC In The Name Of Love,
Jesse

If you you like to know what song inspired my walk today? It's Barry Lane's "More Than A Number" https://search.yahoo.com/search?p=Barry+lane+more+than+a+number+utbue\&ei=UTF-8&fr=moz35

How many miles must we walk until we have equity in our schools?

http://jonathanpelto.com/2015/02/13/connecticut-teacher-union-perfects-concept-sleeping-enemy/

In the above blog Jonathan Pelto is asking how teacher unions could agree to any teacher being evaluated with unvalidated tests that are racially, culturally, and linguistically bias? 

Our children, their teachers, and their local schools are held accountable to testing that does nothing to address inequity. While the state of Connecticut is one of the 49 states who spends more money on their wealthy schools than their poor schools is not held accountable.
Isn't it time we start holding those 49 states accountable?
Our governors and their Commissioners of Education love giving A to F grades to our public schools. They loved holding back children who can't past their mandated test, they love not allowing high school students to graduate if they fail their state mandated test. Secretary Arne Duncan promotes testing as the means to reach equity. That's sort of like telling everyone you can run the race, but some kids have to run with back packs full of bricks.
I have decided to give letter grades to Arne Duncan's United State Department of Education, and those 49 governors.
Their Grade is an F for failure to make a difference to our most needy children.
1.2 trillion dollars was allocated for No Child Left Behind, and 13 year later the only thing we know is that it has succeeded in leaving millions of special needs children and poor children behind. 
One Man Walking To DC In The Name Of Love,
Jesse

 

Got to love these BATs! 

PS the one state that is not spending more money on it's wealthy schools than their poor schools is Alaska.

Inspired to walk by the acts of courage of fellow teachers

This is a must read for every teacher and parent. It gives us a clear human picture of what these fake education reformers, and our policy makers and politicians are do to our schools. 

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2015/02/10/gasps-of-disbelief-as-live-with-kelly-and-michael-top-teacher-winner-resigns-over-common-core-testing/

Is this how the Common Core keeps good teachers in the classroom, or chasing them out? Is this how testing improves learning, or it?

Every day I find another reason to walk to DC, another reason to stand up, speak out, and act.
Today my reason to walk to DC came from Ohio Veteran teacher Stacie Starr when she announced her retirement.
She was chosen as the winner of the “Live with Kelly and Michael” 2014 Top Teacher Search. This past Monday she announced her retirement. Her reasons, she cited the increasing pressures on students and teachers under the mandated Common Core standards and testing mandates.
At the same Board Meeting Dawn Neely another teacher told the board:

“I don’t know what to do. I am morally against what we are doing, and I think history will judge us for what we do to fight for our kids,” she told the Elyria school board. “Look through the test books and you tell me if you think they are developmentally appropriate. No one is advocating for our district, and I am asking my district to be honest with the parents about what we are doing to students.”

Board president Kathryn Karpus reply: The district’s hands are tied. They are bound by Ohio laws that mandate the testing.

Dr. Martin Luther King said this about laws: There are just laws and there are unjust laws. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that ‘an unjust law is no law at all.’
It is a teacher moral responsibility to obey just laws, but it is also his/her responsibility to disobey unjust laws. Ms Starr and Ms. Neely are answering the call to their moral responsibility as teachers. I am humbled by them, and salute them. God bless you Stacie, God bless you Dawn, and God bless every parent and teacher who answers this moral call to stand up for our children.
Why are you walking to DC Jesse?
I am walking, because someone has to tell them in DC that our children, our teachers, and our schools are more than test scores. More than their data, their profits, and their scapegoats that allow 49 states to spend more money on their wealthy schools than their poor schools. This walk is my moral responsibility, my higher call to serve the children in our public schools.
Who are you walking for Jesse?
I am walking for Stacie Starr, Dawn Neely, every teacher and student in Ohio. A change is gonna come, and I plan on fighting for that change.
One Man Walking In The Name Of Love,
Jesse

What am I watching as I prepare for my walk today? I am watching the utube video of Stacie Starr when her school found out she won Top Teacher award.
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AGtFJ0qg9c <
My song of the day Sam Cooke's A change is gonna come"
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbO2_077ixs <

One Man Walking In The Name Of Love To DC

49 states spend more money on their wealthy schools then they do on their poor schools. When pushed they claim testing and the Common Core is the answer. Isn't it time to hold 49 governors, 49 state legislators, 49 commissioners of education accountable for a failure to provide all children an equitable start and finish in our public schools?

1.2 billion dollars was allocated for No Child Left Behind. Isn't it time that the United States General Accounting Office conducted a forensic audit of where and who every dollar went do?
Equity will never be achieve by reducing our children to test scores.
One Man Walking In The Name Of Love,
Jesse 

If you want to know what the Walking Man was listening to on the treadmill preparing for his 400 mile walk to DC today...it U2 "In The Name Of Love" http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xnais_u2-pride-in-the-name-of-love_music

We love your dream Dr. King, but when do our students discuss the nightmares?

The most recent data on lynching, compiled by the Equal Justice Initiative, shows premeditated murders carried out by at least three people from 1877 to 1950. The killers claimed to be enforcing some form of social justice. The alleged offenses that prompted the lynchings included political activism and testifying in court. FEB. 9, 2015

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/02/10/us/map-of-73-years-of-lynching.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0

Something you'll never find on any state mandated test. Perhaps something never even discussed during Black History month, or any month in our public schools. I bet those Common Core Standards passed this over every time. We'll discuss Martin's dream, and stay within the safe places if anything. But, we have no time for those first 16 slaves at James Town, those million Black souls lost during the Middle Passage, Lynching, Travon Martin, Michael Brown, or Eric Garner. History matters, but only when we open the books, open the wounds, open safe discussions, find the time to heal, and share what really matters. Freedom was never free, and the cost should be studied in our public schools. 
See you again in Selma next month. Race Matters! History Matters! Dreams Matter, but so does facing our nightmares.
One Man Walking To DC In The Name Of Love,
Jesse

If you want to know what I listened to on my walk today? If was John Legend and Kanya West
https://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=AwrBT.K6B9pUNvAAWhNXNyoA;_ylc=X1MDMjc2NjY3OQRfcgMyBGZyA2FhcGx3BGdwcmlkA29ZdUoySDl3UVBlbmx3V1ozM1VoaUEEbl9yc2x0AzAEbl9zdWdnAzIEb3JpZ2luA3NlYXJjaC55YWhvby5jb20EcG9zAzAEcHFzdHIDBHBxc3RybAMEcXN0cmwDMjAEcXVlcnkDdGhlIGdsb3J5IHV0dWJlIHNvbmcEdF9zdG1wAzE0MjM1NzUyMTE-?p=the+glory+utube+song&fr2=sb-top-search&fr=aaplw  

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Come sign it with me?
" Freedom is like religion to us

Justice is juxtaposition in us

Justice for all just ain't specific enough

One son died, his spirit is revisitin' us

Truant livin' livin' in us, resistance is us

That's why Rosa sat on the bus

That's why we walk through Ferguson with our hands up

When it go down we woman and man up

They say, "Stay down" and we stand up

Shots, we on the ground, the camera panned up

King pointed to the mountain top and we ran up

One day, when the glory comes

It will be ours, it will be ours

Oh, one day, when the war is one

We will be sure, we will be here sure

Oh, glory, glory

Oh, glory, glory glory"

What does the face of a defender of childhood look like!

What does a parent defending children look like? I am seeing their faces everywhere, and they are called Opt Out Parents!

http://conversationed.com/2015/02/02/opt-out-orlando-just-took-fl-legislators-to-school/

"On January 29, 2015 she [the co-founder of Opt Out Orlando] addressed the Orange County Legislative Delegation. The legislators on this panel serve the Orlando area. Ms. Hamilton, one of the founders of Opt Out Orlando, began as she detailed the circumstances of one student’s current situation. He has a 2.9 GPA, has met all the requirements for graduation, but cannot pass the FCAT. Therefore, he will not graduate. Most of the legislators in the room were unmoved."

Who are these legislators who can't understand that a student who has pass every class for 13 years, should not be held back by a standarized test?

Who are these Ed Reformers who can not understand that no single test defines any student?

Who are these policy makers who mandate polices that denied parents their right to reject a test they feel harms their child?

Let us name them?

They are people who do not care for children, they are people who fear our children and the future, and they are in the pockets of the testing companies.  

When legislators can't see that our children are not test scores, not data, not profits it's time to vote them out. The people elect legislators not Pearson. I recognized evil, and I reject silence and apathy. I am walking to DC for every child, teacher, and school dehumanized, demoralized, and punished by this reign of testing terror. I will bring the stories of Florida's Opt Parents to DC for SOS's Education Malpractice Mock Trail to the BAT Teachers Congress this July 23-26. Silence and apathy are not acceptable when our America's children and teachers are demoralized, and parents are ignored. I stand with Ms. Hamilton and Orlando Opt Out.

One Man Walking In The Name Of Love To DC,

Jesse

If you are wondering what the Walking Man is listening to today preparing for his walk to DC on the treadmill...it's Ben E. King's Stand By Me > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTd2ylacYNU <