Following the confirmation of Betsy DeVos, a billionaire school choice advocate, as U.S. Secretary of Education, parents, students, and community members across the state will march to demand education justice in New York.
In a news release Thursday, the group said the People’s March for Education Justice will focus on the similarities between the Trump-DeVos agenda on public education and Governor Andrew Cuomo's.
Participants will march next month to end the privatization of public schools, end high stakes testing, and to end the school-to-prison pipeline. They said they will also demand an end to systemic racism that defines school funding and want SUNY and CUNY schools to be tuition-free.
Eamonn Scanlon, the lead education organizer for Metro Justice and the Alliance for Quality Education, is organizing the downtown Rochester march.
“Ninety percent of school funding is state and local, and even though we are under attack from the federal level, it’s really the state lawmakers that can do a lot more,” Scanlon said.
Scanlon said with the advent of charter schools, federal and state officials are taking tax dollars out of the communities who need it the most.
“Charter schools and other types of fiscal pressures have not improved Rochester. It really needs an investment by the state,” he said.
Without the possible protection of the Department of Education, DeVos, and the rise of school choice, minorities, especially those in poor areas, Scanlon said, will be left with no options but to endure their poor environments and lack of funding for quality education.
“They’re afraid for this moment, because there’s clearly not a sense that we’re going to invest in these communities. We’re going to further ramp up the disruption, the threats of school closures, of pushing these communities to the brink,” he said.
The march will take place on Saturday, March 4, 2017. Participants are asked to meet at The Liberty Pole at 2 p.m.
