From July 28-31, 2011 a Save Our Schools march, rally, and congress will be held in Washington, DC. The goal, “We’re putting the Public back in public schools!” This national movement to remove the tentacles of big business from the bowels of public education expresses how dire the problem of the mis-education of our children has become.
In Rochester, we are faltering over the leadership of the movement. We are allowing adult agendas to derail the strong, intelligent, hard-working, passionate train of parents and community members from connecting with one another in an effort to move forward in our struggle to free our children from the bonds of institutional ignorance.
The RCSD 2011-12 school calendar brings teachers back into the classroom on August 31 and September 1, 2011 for two Superintendent’s Conference Days. The first day of school for all students is September 2, the Friday before Labor Day, cutting short the last long holiday weekend for families before the school year begins. The district calendar is supposed to be negotiated with parents. What representative group of parents were consulted and agreed to this? What representative group of parents were consulted and agreed to the report cards the district uses? What representative group of parents were consulted and agreed to any of the decisions that were made by this district. Yet, policy clearly states that parents must be consulted and provide decision making input on important issues.
The district is able to make these unilateral decisions because we, the Rochester community, continue to alienate ourselves from one another and from our children’s educational system. We align to save one or two schools, we align to save one or two programs but we cannot seem to come together to save the 32,000 children this district mis-educates.
We must put adult concerns aside and begin to form alliances to amass the power necessary to win the war against the ignorance that is destroying our society.
We must seize this day and rise up in unity to show our district and our children that we do care!
We must align to save our children.
Join the Movement to Save Our Children!
