Why Teachers Must Join the Fight for Public Education. Now.

University of Pennsylvania, Graduate School of Education. 3700 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104. e-mail: [email protected]; Web site: http://urbanedjournal.org

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4

Activism; Public Education; Urban Education; Teacher Participation; Teacher Role; Politics of Education; Neoliberalism; Agenda Setting; Public Schools; Advocacy; Childrens Rights; Educational Policy; Educational Change; Change Strategies; School Restructuring; Budgeting; Social Bias

1946-7109

The author, a teacher-activist with Teacher Action Group-Philadelphia (TAG), presents her views on the need for teachers to get involved in the battle for public education. She expresses her concerns about the political games being played to advance a neoliberal agenda that seeks to dispossess students of their right to a quality education and safety, communities of their public institutions and neighborhood stability, and workers of their hard-earned wages and workplace protections. She sees the consequence of the No Child Left Behind Act's accountability-without-resources policies on her 11th and 12 grade students in terms of deprofessionalizing teaching and standardizing learning, and the sophistication of the mechanisms and infrastructure of the school-to-prison pipeline. The author states that the priority of leaders are not the priorities of teachers, thus they must take a stand and work collectively in ways that are very new to all of them. She outlines the decisions made by the School Reform Commission that are considered as a wake-up call for teachers to fight for public education. She presents vital lessons underscoring the work of the TAG. What was learned at the TAG is the need for: (1) a positive agenda; (2) new leadership; (3) an understanding of the larger picture; (4) a framework of Anti-Racism; and (4) teachers seeing themselves as organizers.

ERIC

2014

EJ1016089