Confronting the Crisis in Urban Education Forum Held

A Public Forum on the Crisis in Urban Education was held Tuesday afternoon, April 29th,at School without Walls, Downtown Rochester <!--break--> April 30, 2003 [Rochester]A Public Forum on the Crisis in Urban Education was held Tuesday afternoon, April 29th,at School without Walls, Downtown Rochester. Teacher’s Forum for Empowerment and Rights organized the event to create a space for educators, parents, students and community members to discuss and plan how to combat the continued attacks on public education. Several Speakers addressed the forum for the first hour, then a focused discussion took place on how to build a broad-based movement for educational change. Dr. Shawgi Tell, a teacher educator at Nazareth College opened the forum with a talk which outlined the aim of the public forum and the nature of the crisis facing society. He defined the aim of the forum as figuring out steps that empower people to become the decision makers and thus to resolve the crisis in their favor. He pointed out that the two key issues, racism and budgets gaps, are what is holding back public education. Dr. Tell also reiterated the importance of the<ahref="http://www.marchforpubliceducation.org">Rally taking place this Saturday (May 3rd) in Albany.</a> Dave Atias, Green Party candidate for Rochester City School Board and public school teacher, spoke about the contradiction between cutting jobs in public education but giving enormous tax cuts to corporations under the pretext that these corporations will create new jobs. He discussed contradictions such as these as examples of the lack of integrity among those running public education. For teachers and administrators, Atias said, integrity can mean risking ones job to stand up for the children in schools. Maria Behncke, from the <ahref="http://www.allianceforqualityeducation.org">Rochester Alliance for Quality Education</a>, talked about the role of her organization and efforts to organize parents in the education struggle. The Alliance for Quality Education is fighting to get a more equitable funding formula. However, Behncke explained that because parents are not treated well in the schools, the first task in organizing is rebuilding trust among parents. Dr. William Cala, Superintendent of Fairport Schools, spoke about the struggle he and the Fairport School Board have been waging concerning the chronically late New York State budget and school funding. Last month, Cala and the Fairport School Board announced that they would not submit a school budget until the NYS Budget was passed. He and the entire school board have been threatened with termination of their positions for taking this stand. He said that until school boards take strong positions opposing cuts that destroy public schools, the problems will continue. “Anton Chekhov said ‘Man is what he believes’ I never believed that. It’s man is what he does” Cala said in reference to the need to take action. Yesterday, the State Senate voted to override Gov. Pataki’s veto of a bill that would allow school boards to submit budgets to voters on June 3rd instead of May 20th. The position Cala took, the only school among the state’s 700 school districts which took this stand, was the decisive factor in allowing this override to pass. Howard J. Eagle; an educational activist, teacher, and candidate for Rochester City School Board, discussed the platform of his candidacy and addressed the question of how effective change can happen. In his discussion of his platform, Eagle said of funding “We’ve got to get past the money issue, the resources exist, but need to be reallocated, they’re being squandered”. He compared the current funding crises to 1960’s Jim Crow Laws. The last speaker was Judi Salsburg, a teacher at Monroe Community College and political activist. Salsburg discussed how her department, MCC Transitional Studies, relates to the current crisis in elementary and secondary schools. The Transitional Studies program is designed for college students who need extra instruction to compete in a college setting. She went on to say that her department is seeing greater numbers of students needing this service, and that reflects a failure in the public schools. During the second half of the event, speakers and participants discussed questions having to do with empowering people to address the crisis. Many called for concrete actions and organizing work to be undertaken. Teachers Forum will continue have updates on their <ahref="http://www.geocities.com/teachersforum"> website</a> regarding this organizing work.

<p> A Public Forum on the Crisis in Urban Education was held Tuesday afternoon, April 29th,at School without Walls, Downtown Rochester</p> <!--break--><p>April 30, 2003<br /> [Rochester]A Public Forum on the Crisis in Urban Education was held Tuesday afternoon, April 29th,at School without Walls, Downtown Rochester. Teacher’s Forum for Empowerment and Rights organized the event to create a space for educators, parents, students and community members to discuss and plan how to combat the continued attacks on public education. Several Speakers addressed the forum for the first hour, then a focused discussion took place on how to build a broad-based movement for educational change.<br /> Dr. Shawgi Tell, a teacher educator at Nazareth College opened the forum with a talk which outlined the aim of the public forum and the nature of the crisis facing society. He defined the aim of the forum as figuring out steps that empower people to become the decision makers and thus to resolve the crisis in their favor. He pointed out that the two key issues, racism and budgets gaps, are what is holding back public education. Dr. Tell also reiterated the importance of the<ahref>Rally taking place this Saturday (May 3rd) in Albany.<br /> Dave Atias, Green Party candidate for Rochester City School Board and public school teacher, spoke about the contradiction between cutting jobs in public education but giving enormous tax cuts to corporations under the pretext that these corporations will create new jobs. He discussed contradictions such as these as examples of the lack of integrity among those running public education. For teachers and administrators, Atias said, integrity can mean risking ones job to stand up for the children in schools.<br /> Maria Behncke, from the <ahref>Rochester Alliance for Quality Education, talked about the role of her organization and efforts to organize parents in the education struggle. The Alliance for Quality Education is fighting to get a more equitable funding formula. However, Behncke explained that because parents are not treated well in the schools, the first task in organizing is rebuilding trust among parents.<br /> Dr. William Cala, Superintendent of Fairport Schools, spoke about the struggle he and the Fairport School Board have been waging concerning the chronically late New York State budget and school funding. Last month, Cala and the Fairport School Board announced that they would not submit a school budget until the NYS Budget was passed. He and the entire school board have been threatened with termination of their positions for taking this stand. He said that until school boards take strong positions opposing cuts that destroy public schools, the problems will continue. “Anton Chekhov said ‘Man is what he believes’ I never believed that. It’s man is what he does” Cala said in reference to the need to take action. Yesterday, the State Senate voted to override Gov. Pataki’s veto of a bill that would allow school boards to submit budgets to voters on June 3rd instead of May 20th. The position Cala took, the only school among the state’s 700 school districts which took this stand, was the decisive factor in allowing this override to pass.<br /> Howard J. Eagle; an educational activist, teacher, and candidate for Rochester City School Board, discussed the platform of his candidacy and addressed the question of how effective change can happen. In his discussion of his platform, Eagle said of funding “We’ve got to get past the money issue, the resources exist, but need to be reallocated, they’re being squandered”. He compared the current funding crises to 1960’s Jim Crow Laws.<br /> The last speaker was Judi Salsburg, a teacher at Monroe Community College and political activist. Salsburg discussed how her department, MCC Transitional Studies, relates to the current crisis in elementary and secondary schools. The Transitional Studies program is designed for college students who need extra instruction to compete in a college setting. She went on to say that her department is seeing greater numbers of students needing this service, and that reflects a failure in the public schools.<br /> During the second half of the event, speakers and participants discussed questions having to do with empowering people to address the crisis. Many called for concrete actions and organizing work to be undertaken. Teachers Forum will continue have updates on their <ahref><br /> website regarding this organizing work. </ahref></ahref></ahref></p>