We are blessed!

I began this day asking people to boycott ALEC member's products on Facebook, but by mid day ended up sharing my rise from poverty, because some ask me to share.

The start of the day

A decade ago parents ask for universal pre-school, and smaller class sizes. The Washington DC deceivers said that is too expensive. So a decade later of DC reforms America has spent nearly 10 trillion dollars on NCLB/RTTT school reforms that increase class size, and did not do anything to make universal pre-school a reality. However the profits of every testing company have gone through the roof, and campaign contributions to our politicians from those companies are at an all time high. The deceivers are laughing all the way to the bank. They think they have silenced children, parents, teachers, and school administrators. They have been to busy to notice the tidal wave coming. Judas took 30 silver pieces! How much have our leaders taken to sell out our children.
We can act.
We can make a difference.
We are not powerless.
We are the people.
No matter what the deceivers tell us we know,
We are a government for the people by the people.
There is not anything more powerful, more beautiful then the people.
I am calling you the beautiful, you the powerful, you the people to act.
Boycott the king of lobbying deceivers ALEC member's products people. Coke, Pepsi, Kraft, and McDonalds have pulled out, because the people told them we are boycotting your products. Today’s target is ATT! Stand up, speak up, email/call ATT, and tell ATT to withdraw from ALEC today, or you will switch. Go for it! It feels so good to let these people know we see through their lies.
Still learning, still teaching, still walking, still marching, still fighting, and now boycotting,
Jesse The Walking Man Turner

My mid day sharing

Stefanie, you ask how did I beat the odds of getting out of poverty.

It’s a long story, but I’ll try to make it short.

Let me begin with Momma's five givens, and then my rise.

First and foremost no one climbs out of poverty alone.

Second poverty is not a crime; it is a cancer that left untreated will consume you.

Third poverty like cancer does not strip a human of their dignity.

Fourth people living in poverty like all people are loved by God. Many would even say they are more loved. I was blessed by God’s love from my first breath.

Fifth no human who holds fast to his or her faith and dignity can be beaten.

I may have growth up in poverty, but I was rich in love, faith, and people who cared. My father loved the bottle more than his family, and abandoned his wife, his daughters, and his only son. Let me also say no one can rise from poverty without forgiving others. I forgave him from day 1.

Yes, we knew homelessness, hunger, the thanksgiving without a turkey, the Christmas without a tree, winters without heat, and felt blessed by candles in the night.

There were neighbors who rescued me numerous times when I leaned too close to the gang bangers, drug dealers, and the damned. Like Mr Cruz: “Mijo, what are you doing here? Come with me stupid. These boys are nothing, but trouble. You don’t want me to talk to your Momma do you? I said come with me”

So I went with Mr. Cruz…

There go I, but for the grace of god.

There were times when my decision-making was off.

There were so many times I could have fallen.

Some how at those times Father Fitzgerald always popped around.
“Hey Jesse come walk with me, and let’s have a talk. We walk, and as we walked he fed my soul the parables.”

I think of Father Fritz when ever I sing Amazing Grace.
“Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,

That saved a wretch like me....

I once was lost but now am found,

Was blind, but now, I see.”

Years later, I would follow his model, and walk those same streets keeping others from falling with Sister Antonelle and Brother Thomas at The Promise.

No one truly rises from poverty without giving back.

Now you need at least one person who would give up the very air she needed to breath if you needed it.

A person strong enough to have never hurt another, a person strong enough not to be consumed by racism in a world of hatred, a person who worked for minimum wage 12 hours a day six days a week.

A person who made her children see a loaf of Wonder Bread, and a jar of mayonnaise as a thanksgiving feast.

I would be nothing without a mother who loved me like a rock..

My Momma was a rock of love.

“My mama loves, she loves me

She gets down on her knees and hugs me

She loves me like a rock

She rocks me like the rock of ages”

No one can rise out of poverty without being loved.

I was blessed by the love of three sisters.

Three beautiful older sisters, three blessings, all who were smarter than me, and who in a just world would have gone further.

I cannot not begin to count the days they carried me on their shoulders. They walked me to school. They made sure my homework was done. On more than one occasion one of those sisters threaten to take down every gangster in the hood if they laid a hand on her little brother. She not only said it, and she could back it up as well.

There are not enough numbers to count the times I have been lifted by the women in my life. I stood on their shoulders. As I said I am blessed.

Finally, you need teachers and Liberians. You need people who make the boring meaningful.

When I thought being a man meant having the passion to fight everyday; Mr. Bass taught me passion is nothing without compassion. Mr. Bass opened the world of books to us all.

Mr. Bass taught us real men never raise their hands against another. Mr. Bass taught us the meaning of dignity through the reading of " To Kill A Mocking Bird". His lessons still guide my every walking hour.

I had many teachers some walked on water, others helped us be better walkers, and some we helped to walk, but everyone of them did the best they could with what they had. No one could ask anymore than that. Teachers are my heroes. They were all blessings sent by God’s angels.

Along side of teachers are librarians. 

The keepers of those hidden treasures those beautiful, beautiful books.

Liberians those saints, who turned the lights on and off, stacked the shelves, welcomed everyone, and always kept the heat on. Nothing fed a hungry heart like a great book, a good chair, and a warm room. Libraries are pieces of heaven fallen to earth.

Some might think I lived in poverty.

In my soul I know I was never poor.

I was blessed with a wealth of loving and caring people.

It is written in scripture that: “A man does not live by bread only, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”

I was not born into poverty, but into God’s grace.

Sincerely blessed,

Jesse The Walking Man Turner

If you want to know what the I am listening to on my walk today it On Rocky Ground by Bruce Springsteen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYUYnoWqct0&feature=player_embedded

Race To The Top the new religion of fear, punishment, and false hope.

Albert Einstein said: “A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.”

Reflecting on an article by Gary Scharrer in Chron.com on the Education Accountability Project’s critical report on public education’s financial accountability
He writes, “Mark Hurley the person who organized the project states, “that minimally, school district financial reports should show:

• What people are paid to do
• What classes are being taught by grade and how many students are completing them
• What contractors are providing what services and whether they are bid competitively
• What districts are spending on non teaching activities

He goes on to say: Texas courts have spent the better part of 30 years refereeing school funding squabbles. Another lawsuit will be tried later this year. Richard Gray III is a lawyer representing 407 Texas public school districts in one of four lawsuits against the state. The education community believes "the system is woefully underfunded, Gray said. "We're back to a situation that's as bad as it's ever been, if not worse," he said. The poorest 15 percent of school districts now get at least $2,000 less per student than the wealthiest 15 percent  - despite lower tax rates in those property-rich districts.”

Readers ~ Texas does not stand alone in this lack of financial accountability. There are 49 other clueless states! No one in any State DOE, or in the U. S. Department of Education wants to tackle the issue of inequity in our schools. Certainly not a U.S. Department of Education that promises equity in the form of lotteries and schools competing against each other. Their solution instead is to immerse our children in a Darwinian Survival of the Fittest.
They've never provided the figures on how much is actually spent in classrooms - next to children.

And yet the biggest oversight on the part of the DOE by far, is how they continue to accept spending less money on children of color, and the poor.
The mantras that we continue to hear from the Reformer's are:
Poverty does not matter. 
Race does not matter.
Special needs do not matter.
Their mantra could instead be "we refuse to do the right thing for children of color, the poor, and children with special needs"

Keep your eye on the prize America.

Jonathan Kozol's Savage Inequalities still rules the land.
"No Child Left Behind" and “Race To The Top” have  done nothing to change things for children of color, or the poor.

The NAACP has since 1909 reminded America of its failure to bring equity to our schools.
Let’s call it what it really is.

America’s moral sin is our refusal to do the right thing for all children.

Every single court in America has been skirting around this issue since Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
58 years of skirting around our nation's moral responsibility...

58 years of pretending...
58 years of inequity in our schools...

58 years of waiting on something better for our children than a race to nowhere...

Silence and apathy are not acceptable!

This is why  I called No Child Left Behind "a scam" ~ from day one.

This is why I have held town hall meetings calling for a balanced assessment framework since 2003,

This is why I held a Children Are More Than Test Scores conference in 2004,

This is why I created Children Are More Than Test Scores, and

Why I started blogging in 2009,

This is why I walked 400 miles to DC in 40 days in 2010,

This is why I marched with Save Our Schools in 2011,

This is why I ran for the Save Our Schools March, and Call to Action Steering Committee in 2011,

This is why I collaborate with others to pass resolutions against high stakes testing in my professional organizations over the years.

This is why I cannot stop speaking up, 

This is why I went to the Selma Alabama Jubilee Education Summit in 2012,

This is why I testified against NCLB waivers in March 2012,

This is why I will occupy the U.S. Department of Education on March 30, 31, April 1 & 2,

This is why I am going with SOS to Washington DC for the People's Education Convention in August,

Silence and apathy are not acceptable.

My feet are tired, my voice is hoarse, but the spirit is ready and able to follow this quest for justice, this quest for equity, and this is my climb to Martin’s Dream.
Ready to occupy,

Jesse
If you want to know what the Walking Man was listening to on my walk on this cold spring day it's Patty Griffin’s Up The Mountain (MLK Tribute Song). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA6Q5-Ap3o8

Gary Scharrer‘s Chron.com article> http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Report-critical-of-public-education-s-financial-3439428.php

Race To The Top is another name for "Pink Slime" brain food given to America's children

Schools Drop ‘Pink Slime’ Beef Filler Like a Hot Potato www.nytimes.com News of the ammonia-treated additive, formally called lean finely textured beef, set off a reaction by schools and an announcement by the Agriculture Department.

NCLB/RTTT's high stakes testing is Pink Slime being fed to the minds of our children.

People can change things. On March 9th I blogged "Can we trust a U.S. DOE that approves of feeding our children Pink Slime?” all over the country others blogged, talked and complained that the United States Department of Agriculture purchased 7 tons of this "Pink Slime" to use for school lunches. The Pink Slime was soon removed from major supermarket chains, simply because shoppers/consumers and bloggers began to question "I wonder does my supermarket sell this Pink Slime?"  When an informed public speaks up and questions leadership decisions ~ wheels start turning, and pink slime disappears from supermarket shelves!  
We are about to turn the corner on NCLB/RTTT reforms. The tide is shifting. I am joining parents, teachers, educators, and students in DC next Saturday.  We will "Occupy" the United States Department of Education. 
No matter where you are next week-end, talk about us Occupiers. Blog about us; write letters to news editors; and talk us up on the social media networks. In DC I'll be conducting my teach-ins, protesting, singing, and occupying the U.S. DOE.  Oh yea, we will also be asking Secretary Arne Duncan to resign! 
Their NCLB/RTTT house of cards is about to fall. 
America's children are more than test scores Secretary Duncan ~ see you in DC.
Calling all concerned souls in the DC area next week to stand tall with us against the Pink Slime Testing Reforms of NCLB/RTTT.
Details for the week-end in DC can be found:
 http://unitedoptout.com/
Join the Revolution, check out our new Save Our Schools website: http://www.saveourschoolsmarch.org/

Ready to occupy

Jesse The Walking Man Turner