Project Description
On January 29, 2013, Journey For Justice held a community hearing at the Department if Education and demanded that their proposal for Sustainable School Transformation be added as the fifth option for struggling schools under the federal School Improvement Grants (SIG) program.
Through consistent pressure from organized parents, students and community school advocates, we are pleased to announce 'Victory!'
Now, the Sustainable School Community Transformation Plan is the fifth option in the federal SIG program where before it was not even a possibility. Let's Organize!!!
Journey for Justice Alliance Webinar – Our Children Are Not Collateral Damage
The J4J Children Are Not Collateral Damage Webinar – May 9th 2014 – 8:30PM ET
Jitu, Sharon and each of the Dyett students, Diamond and Parrish, were present at the 2013 Department of Education, Civil Rights Division hearing. They were there and gave Secretary Duncan a Sustainable School Transformation Plan. Please join them. Listen to their stories, share your own, and never forget the master plan, as Deb Meier reminds us…
I take enormous pleasure every time I see something that I've done that cannot be wiped out.
In some way ... I guess it's a protest against mortality.
It's the curiosity that drives me.
It's making a difference in the world that prevents me from ever giving up.
~ Deborah Meier
We begin this webinar with a look at our history, the history of neighborhood schools and how vital these have been particularly in our Black communities. For African-Americans learning is a religion. It opens doors and as you likely know recent changes in education policy have closed these. Thus, we are on a mission…. A Journey for Justice. We work in Alliance.
The speakers will offer an overview of the conditions that lead to the formation of the Journey for Justice Alliance. We will discuss the need to Reclaim the Promise that is public education. The systematic betrayal of that pledge will only stand if we stay silent. Together let us speak about the issues…federal mandates, local mayoral and School Board actions that disinvest and destabilize our neighborhood schools, and also take action.
We have come face-to-face with the fact that education in America is still separate and unequal.
The privatizers have falsely occupied a space that we are now seizing.
We are the civil rights movement, not people who profit off of children.
A prerequisite to school choice is stability and equity.
That is what we are fighting for.
~Jitu Brown
A Bit of Background. School Closings are a Human Rights Issue in the United States (See Resources)
Across our cities and school districts, our public schools are being shuttered. Students are displaced and families lose their lifeline; access to a quality education within the community. Sometimes, school closure is said to be based on student academic performance. Sometimes it is rationalized by under-enrollment or financial needs. But in every case—every time a neighborhood public school is closed—students’ education is disrupted. Communities are destabilized. Children and their families are emotionally jarred. This does not make for a good situation. The affects are felt nationwide.
It is essential to note that School closings do not occur in every community. Nor are these evenly distributed evenly across our districts. Some may say there is no discrimination, but we cannot escape the reality, disproportionately African American and Latino students, schools and communities are affected. It would appear that these are simultaneously neglected and selected for severe cuts in education funding.
