"Save Our Schools" March - July 30th 2011

S.O.S. - Save Our Schools - was the call to action as supporters marched in DC on July 30th. For those of you not already familiar with the group and their goals, per their website, they are a "grassroots movement dedicated to restoring educator, parent, student, and community influence over education policy and practice. We are a varied group of people with different perspectives, experiences, and views on education. But we agree that those who know the most about education, our schools, and our communities—the educators, students, families and communities in and around them—should be the ones to have the most influence over education policy and practice. Our goal is to put public school stakeholders back at the center of all education policy conversations, and to refocus national, state, and local efforts on providing the resources and support schools need in order to provide a high-quality education for each and every student."

The things they want to have changed include:

Equitable funding for all public school communities

Equitable funding across all public schools and school systems
Full public funding of family and community support services
Full funding for 21st century school and neighborhood libraries
An end to economically and racially re-segregated schools

An end to high stakes testing used for the purpose of student, teacher, and school evaluation

The use of multiple and varied assessments to evaluate students, teachers, and schools
An end to pay per test performance for teachers and administrators
An end to public school closures based upon test performance

Teacher, family and community leadership in forming public education policies

Educator and civic community leadership in drafting new ESEA legislation
Federal support for local school programs free of punitive and competitive funding
An end to political and corporate control of curriculum, instruction and assessment decisions for teachers and administrators

Curriculum developed for and by local school communities

Support for teacher and student access to a wide-range of instructional programs and technologies
Well-rounded education that develops every student’s intellectual, creative, and physical potential
Opportunities for multicultural/multilingual curriculum for all students
Small class sizes that foster caring, democratic learning communities

Thousands of supporters showed up for the rally, including guest speaker Matt Damon, who gave a short speech after being introduced by his school teacher mother.



Local news coverage was scarce, as is the case with any worthwile event. One summary article on the event stated "I was appalled that the national networks, other than minor articles on CNN, chose to ignore the Save Our Schools March & National Call to Action. For NBC, with its pro-"reformer" stance with its misguided Education Nation series, I could see how they'd want to stay away from something that rips apart the flawed logic of what they're pushing. But ABC, CBS, and FOX all not covering a major march in the nation's capital? It shows how much power the billionaire boys club and other "reformers" have over our national media."

If you'd like to read more about the event, some of the coverage that did take place includes The Huffington Post, Education Week, and the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette.

If you attended this rally, share your thoughts below.

Jeff McCormack resides in Virginia Beach, VA. where he works as a web designer by day. In his off time he is a husband, father, mail order book store manager, and musician. Aside from being a freelance writer for this Education Jobsite blog, he also seeks to assist in career choices and information by contributing to other Nexxt blog sites.