Don't tell me that the best measures of our children are standardized test scores?
Don't tell me charter schools and magnet schools for some is the best America can do?
Don't tell me tax cuts for billionaires’ matter more than budget cuts to our public schools?
Don't tell me the purpose of public education is to get a good job?
Don't tell me quality education for our children depends on their Zip Code?
Don't tell me rigor, no excuses, and tough love is the best we can do for our children in public schools?
Don't tell me removing elected boards of education in Black, Brown, and Poor communities improves our public schools?
Don't tell me the best measure of our teachers are the test scores of the children they teach?
Don't tell me billionaires, hedge fund managers, and testing companies have the slightest clue to what matters to our children in our public schools?
Don't tell me legislators who claim they want accountability through testing, but have haven't done anything about inequity in our public schools understand accountability.
Don't tell me turning our public schools over to the same corporate America that sent our jobs overseas, closed our factories, and mills are trust worthy of caring for our children?
Trust me on this one thing, the people understand that NCLB, RTTT and ESSA are rotted in the same test and punish policies that have already failed our children.
The people are gathering, and after this election we will be coming in mass to take back our public schools.
We will insist on a new accountability, one in which we judge our political leaders not by the test scores of our children, but by equity and justice every child receives in our public schools.
There will be no more budget cuts.
There will be no compromises on equity.
The purpose of American public schools will be to help our children fulfill the only American standard that matters written into our Declaration of Independence: “We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
Change is long overdue, change is coming, and the people are already marching.
On the march,
Jesse The Walking Turner
Sing it all the way to the public schools our children deserve.
" People get ready
There's a train a-coming
You don't need no baggage
You just get on board
All you need is faith
To hear the diesels humming
Don't need no ticket
