Friday, November 06, 2009

The Socialist Perspective on School Reform - 11/21/09

Join the struggle against Green Dot's Corporate Charter-Voucher Onslaught"School reform" is one of the most overused phrases in the media these days. To the Obama administration and the corporate interests wanting to dismantle public education, "school reform" means attacking teachers' unions, increasing standardized testing, and handing schools over to unaccountable Charter Management Organizations.

But to us, truly reforming our schools would mean giving them all the funding they need for beautiful school buildings, small class sizes, educational materials, and engaging field trips. It would mean putting teachers and parents in control of running their schools in the best interests of students, and getting rid of the bureaucrats and mandates that try to control education from the top down.

"School reform" has a dual meaning because education itself has two sides under capitalism. It's used to reproduce class inequalities by training a few to be managers and the rest of us to work for them. But as people come together to be educated, we also begin to think about reaching our full potential and liberating ourselves. That's why education has always been a location of conflict and struggle in our society.

Come to this meeting to discuss how the fight for truly liberatory education is linked to the fight for a socialist society run democratically in the interests of the many rather than the few!

featuring speakers
Gillian Russom and David Rapkin, UTLA and ISO

This event is part of the
2009 Southern California Socialist Conference
Saturday, November 21, 2009 from 1:30—3:00pm
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=198934026139

USC Taper Hall of Humanities (THH)
3501 Trousdale Parkway
Los Angeles, CA 90007

http://socalsocialism.org/
lacityiso@yahoo.com
(310) 404-1738

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