Teachers, Parents Oppose Attack On Public Education

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

Charging that public education is under attack by “an unholy alliance of right-wing billionaires,” hundreds of teachers, students, parents and education rights activists rallied outside the Washington Marriott at noon yesterday, chanting “Say no to vouchers- save our schools” and waving signs reading “Stop the assault on public education!”  “These people want to destroy public education through vouchers,” yelled one protester, pointing at the hotel where controversial former DC schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, governors Scott Walker and Tom Corbett were speaking at the American Federation for Children’s (AFC) annual policy conference.  The protesters say that AFC openly says their goal is to “replace public education with a voucher system,” which provides families with government funded certificates to offset the cost of private school tuition. “Twenty years have shown that vouchers” do not work, Bonnie Bruski, a Milwaukee, Wisconsin public school teacher for over 11 years, told the crowd. “Unfortunately the people in power are making all the wrong decisions and it’s not for our children, it’s not for our public infrastructure and it’s not for our future, so keep on fighting!” Pennsylvania mother of two Alisha Dawson said that the “most likely result of SB1” – legislation that would implement the controversial school voucher system – “is that public schools that are already financially stressed will be worse off because vouchers will undoubtedly siphon money away from them.” She added, “History shows that vouchers will not help our community, but will deepen the educational debt and further stress already disadvantaged communities.” Washington Teachers Union President Nathan Saunders told Union City that Rhee, Walker and Corbett “are a really dangerous example of the alignment of certain types of negative forces for education.” He said that the voucher system “dilutes traditional resources for public education” and is contrary to “public education interests of working parents and children of this country.” – report/photo by Adam Wright