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<small><font face="Arial">In this email:<br>
<br>
1) 6/3 - Demonstration Against the Racist Resegregation of Boston
Public Schools<br>
2) Community Summit says NO to Racist School Resegregation<br>
</font></small>
<hr size="2" width="100%"><small><b><font face="Arial">1)</font></b><font
face="Arial"><br>
<br>
<font color="#660000"><b><big><big><big>Wednesday, June 3 - 5:30 pm</big><br>
</big></big></b></font><big><font color="#660000"><big><big><b>Demonstration:
Boston School Committee</b></big></big></font></big><br>
<b><big>26 Court St., Boston</big></b><br>
<br>
<b><big><big>Vote NO on the 5 Zone Plan<br>
Demand Equal Quality Education<br>
Equity & Access to a Quality Education is a Civil Right</big></big></b><br>
<br>
</font><b><font face="Arial"><a
href="http://equalqualityeducation.org/060309flyer.pdf">download
English flyer</a> <a
href="http://equalqualityeducation.org/060309-spn.pdf">download
Spanish flyer</a></font></b></small><br>
<ul>
<li><b><small><font face="Arial">Our Children Deserve the Best</font></small></b></li>
<li><b><small><font face="Arial">Excellence and equity for all
students in all schools</font></small></b></li>
<li><b><small><font face="Arial">STOP the further segregation of
Boston Schools</font></small></b></li>
<li><b><small><font face="Arial">Funding for programs & staff (no
layoffs)</font></small></b></li>
<li><b><small><font face="Arial">Limit choice - limit access - limit
dreams</font></small></b></li>
</ul>
<small><font face="Arial"><br>
<b><big>Coalition for Equal Quality Education</big></b><br>
<a href="mailto:EqualQualityEducation@gmail.com">EqualQualityEducation@gmail.com</a>
• 617-427-8100 • <a href="http://www.equalqualityeducation.org">www.equalqualityeducation.org</a><br>
<br>
Black Educators’ Alliance of Massachusetts (BEAM); Work-4-Quality
Schools; Boston Parents Organizing Network (BPON); USW L. 8751 Boston
School Bus Drivers; Councilors Chuck Turner, Charles Yancey, and Sam
Yoon; Minister Don Muhammad; Bail Out the People Movement; Women’s
Fightback Network; New England Human Rights Organization for Haiti;
Bishop Felipe Teixeira, OFSJC; Community Change; Fight Imperialism,
Stand Together (FIST); Union of Minority Neighborhoods<br>
</font></small>
<hr size="2" width="100%"><small><b><font face="Arial">2)</font></b><font
face="Arial"><br>
<b><font color="#660000"><big><big>Community summit says NO to racist
school resegregation</big></big></font></b><br>
By Frank Neisser<br>
<br>
About 200 parents, teachers, students and community activists
participated in a spirited community summit at Roxbury Community
College in Boston May 14. They said no to Mayor Thomas Menino and the
Boston School Committee’s racist plan to return the city to segregated,
“neighborhood” schools.<br>
<br>
The event was chaired by Sandra McIntosh of Work for Quality, Fight for
Equity (WQFE). Jose Lopez of the newly-formed Coalition for Equal
Quality Education (CEQE) gave a graphic presentation of “before and
after” maps showing how the new five-zone assignment plan would limit
parents’ and students’ access to quality schools and programs. He cited
figures showing that 58 percent of the schools in the zones including
the African-American community were listed as underperforming, compared
to only 16 percent of the schools in the majority-white
Allston-Brighton neighborhood’s zone.<br>
<br>
City Councilor Chuck Turner cited a community victory in a similar
mobilization in 2004, when Menino last launched a “task force” to
revise student assignment and transportation plans to return to
neighborhood schools. At that time, parents packed a community meeting
at a Roxbury church and made it completely clear to the City Council,
School Committee and the mayor that the plan was unacceptable as long
as there were no quality schools available in the communities of color.
The mayor and School Committee agreed then that there would be no
change in the student assignment plan until the issues of equity and of
quality schools in all communities were addressed.<br>
<br>
It is now five years later and nothing has been done.<br>
<br>
Miriam Ortiz of the Boston Parents Organizing Network explained at the
May 14 summit how the plan would deprive special education students of
access to inclusion programs they need. The plan would also leave East
Boston, the neighborhood with the largest Latina/o student population,
without access to any two-way bilingual program.<br>
<br>
Mary Jo Hetzel of WQFE accused the mayor of using the budget crisis as
a pretext to push his racist political agenda of a return to
“neighborhood schools.”<br>
<br>
Nora Toney of Black Educators Alliance of Massachusetts (BEAM) spoke of
the history of the struggle for access to quality educational programs
for the Black community, going back to the founding of BEAM in 1966.<br>
<br>
City Councilor Charles Yancey rallied the crowd, saying, “We can’t turn
back. We won’t go back to racist resegregation of the Boston schools.”
City Councilor Sam Yoon, a mayoral candidate, also spoke against the
five-zone plan.<br>
<br>
A wide array of parents, teachers and students participated in the open
discussion, including parents and teachers from the Hernandez School.
This is currently a citywide school with a very successful two-way
bilingual program. Under the new plan—which would only allow students
in the zone to access it—over 55 percent of those who access the school
today would no longer be eligible for transportation to the school, and
no new students outside the zone could apply.<br>
<br>
Kervin Voyard, leader of Powerful Students at the Community Academy of
Science and Health (CASH), described the students’ walkout and
demonstration at school headquarters in early May to save teachers at
their school from being laid off and to fight for equal, fair treatment
for Haitian students.<br>
<br>
Andre Francois of Boston School Bus Drivers, Steelworkers Local 8751,
said this coalition was the beginning of the fightback against racism
and bigotry in the city, and called on all to take it to the streets.
The union had contributed to the struggle by printing thousands of May
14 flyers and distributing them to the students on buses to bring to
their parents. The union, which includes a large number of Haitian
drivers, provided translation for a sizeable group of Haitian parents
who attended the May 14 summit.<br>
<br>
The event was organized by the CEQE, including BEAM; Work 4 Quality,
Fight for Equity; Boston Parents Organizing Network; Boston School Bus
Drivers; Chuck Turner and Charles Yancey; Minister Don Muhammad, Nation
of Islam; Bail Out the People Movement; Women’s Fightback Network; New
England Human Rights for Haiti; Bishop Felipe Teixeira, OFSJC;
Community Change; Fight Imperialism, Stand Together (FIST) youth; the
Powerful Students of CASH; and Union of Minority Neighborhoods.<br>
<br>
The coalition called on everyone to march with the Hernandez parents,
teachers and students on May 18, and to demonstrate at the School
Committee headquarters at 26 Court St. in Boston at 5:30 p.m. on June
3, when the superintendent will present the final recommendation on the
five-zone plan.<br>
<br>
Boston has been a battleground against racism in the schools since
1974, when<br>
<br>
African-American parents demanded equal education 20 years after the
Supreme Court ruled segregation unconstitutional. It took a mass march
of 25,000 against racism in Boston on Dec. 14, 1974, to turn the corner
against the racist attacks on school buses transporting
African-American students to schools in predominantly white
neighborhoods. Activists see the need to take it to the streets again
to prevent a return to the racist, bigoted past.</font></small><br>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
<hr><font face="Helvetica, Helvetica" size="2">Bail Out The People
Movement<br>
<b>Boston<br>
</b>617-522-6626<br>
<a href="mailto:bopmboston@gmail.com">bopmboston@gmail.com<br>
</a><a href="http://bopm-boston.blogspot.com">http://bopm-boston.blogspot.com</a><br>
<br>
<b>National Office<br>
</b>212-633-6646<br>
<a href="mailto:bailoutpeople@safewebmail.com">bailoutpeople@safewebmail.com
<br>
</a><a href="http://www.BailOutPeople.org">http://www.BailOutPeople.org</a><br>
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