Los Angeles student groups to protest racism and other right-wing hate

A busy week will be upon us. As most of you know, CEJ's campaign-turned-movement for the Schools LA Students Deserve has really grown in the last few years. Many of our chapters (we have 14 now!!) are called Students Deserve and our students, parents and teachers often call us Students Deserve now, although we are still Coalition for Educational Justice as well (CEJ). We have chapters as far west as Venice HS, as far east as Garfield HS, in Hollywood, Koreatown, Silver Lake, North Hollywood and South LA. We're seeing our dream of organizing across our huge city come to life!!

We wanted to share an exciting event  that our students have planned on their own with some support from our two new paid Students Deserve organizers, Maricela (full-time student and parent organizer) and Alfredo (part-time, supports the student organizing piece).

We're very excited to announce:

• Weds, January 18th: Students United Against Hate, United for the Communities LA Students Deserve 
Event- MacArthur Park 4:30pm
 (PDF Flyer attached below) We want a safe space for students by students as we challenge Trump, his politics, his followers, the systems of oppression that have allowed him to exist, and the damage that he wants to do to us.
  
  
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  There will be music, art, spoken word and a panel discussion. Our students are AWESOME. Please come to MacArthur Park on Wednesday after school if you are available!! We know that UTLA Chapter Chairs have Area Meetings that afternoon. 

We also will be involved on Thursday: January 19th: UTLA/ROS LA Morning Action. You probably know about the action taking place at schools. Students Deserve students want to support whatever this looks like at your campus to show that we won’t let Trump mess with schools and our communities.

Stay involved. Stay strong. Stay united. We will not be bullied by the incoming president and his right-wing cabinet nominees. WE WILL NOT BACK DOWN!

See you on Wednesday standing strong at MacArthur Park and Thursday standing strong at our schools!!

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Los Angeles student groups to protest racism and other right-wing hate

Protest against Eli Broad's charter putsch by Voices Against Privatizing Public Education

The activists comprising Voices Against Privatizing Public Education, whose efforts were recently highlighted on Professor Diane Ravitch's blog, are holding a rally/protest in front of the Broad Foundation's headquarters. This is in response to Broad and his fellow reactionaries' announcement of plans to privatize more than half the Los Angeles Unified School District within the next few years. Given the money these plutocrats have dumped into their profitable privatization projects, the Broad/Walton threat to eliminate public education is a clear and present danger. Join the rally/protest, sign the petition, and get involved with turning back the tide of school privatization by helping overturn avaricious billionaire Reed Hasting's 1992 California Charter School Act. For more on Eli Broad and school privatization, see the section entitled "The Neoliberal Emperor of Los Angeles" in this essay. — rds

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ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

Join us in showing your support for public education. Public schools are OUR schools, not Eli Broad's

SAVE OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS RALLY

Sponsored by Voices Against Privatizing Public Education

PROTEST LOCATION: Broad Foundation Headquarters (in front of building only) Avenue of The Stars Los Angeles, CA

MONDAY, AUGUST 17, 2015 AT NOON

The LA Times announced that the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, along with the Walton Family Foundation and the Keck Foundation met to discuss plans to have half of Los Angeles students attending charter schools over the next eight years. http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-lausd-charters-20150808-story.html

We say no more billionaire and corporate takeover of our public schools!

Charter schools cherry pick students, falsify records, commit enrollment fraud, close down public schools in predominantly low income areas, destroy jobs, bust up unions, appoint private school boards unaccountable to the taxpayers, and segregate student populations based on income and race.

Separate but equal has no place!!

A recent report entitled “Fraud, Waste and Lies: Charter Schools Cheating Communities out of Millions of Dollars” cited hundreds of millions of public education dollars being wasted due to fraud and other abuses in the charter school sector. Read here: http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/04/29/fraud-waste-and-lies-charter-schools-cheating-communities-out-millions-dollars

The charter school industry is a cancer on our public education system. The only solution is to repeal the charter school laws in California once and for all.

Come to the rally - defend our public schools against the attack by greedy profiteers.

Please show your support for placing a statewide ballot initiative to repeal charter school laws in California by signing petition here: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/repeal-charter-school-act-of-1992-in-ca-ballot

Please read more at: https://notocharterschools.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/defend-public-ed-statement.pdf For more information about this rally call us at: (415) 282-1908

Make your voices heard and be part of the solution to save our public schools!

Protest against Eli Broad's charter putsch by Voices Against Privatizing Public Education by Robert D. Skeels

Protest against Eli Broad's charter putsch by Voices Against Privatizing Public Education

K12NN: Photo Gallery: Schools Los Angeles Students Deserve Rally 8-May-2014

Photo Gallery: Schools Los Angeles Students Deserve Rally 8-May-2014 http://t.co/BCtZbbtUMf @K12NN #LAUSD pic.twitter.com/UVDAopN5At

— RDSkeels4Schoolboard (@RDSkeels4LAUSD) June 7, 2014

K12NN: Photo Gallery: Schools Los Angeles Students Deserve Rally 8-May-2014

Economic Justice L.A. Calls Urgent Action: Tax Big Oil = Fund Education

This seemed worthy of publicizing.

What if we could get the oil companies to give schools kindergarten through universities 3 billion dollars a year? We can, if we get Proposition 1481 on the ballot. Authored by Cypress College Professor Peter Mathews, Prop 1481 is the ballot initiative that would tax oil extraction to fund education. California is the only state that does not tax oil extraction.

We can:

• Make higher education affordable to all
• Improve funding for K-12, reduce class size and prevent layoffs of teachers and staff
• improve quality of education

To help with the signature gathering effort here in Los Angeles, Economic Justice L.A. is asking folks to participate in one of two major mobilizations:

1. Saturday, August 27th 10 am-3pm the L.A. Sports Arena: 13th annual Family Back to School Health Festival Mothers in Action, and the Watts Times are some of the sponsors of this annual gathering where children can receive free hair cuts, immunizations, health screenings and school supplies. Thousands of working class families are expected to attend.
2. Monday August 29th: Back to School at Community Colleges all over L.A. As students return to their community colleges, they will be facing the most recent rounds of fee increases and class reductions: let's help them do something about it by signing the petition and circulating it among their friends. Students (or non students with free time that day) are needed at L.A.C.C., Trade Tech, Pasadena College, Harbor College, Southwest College, West L.A. College and others.

Here's how you can help: contact Economic Justice L.A. at 310-568-9622 and let us know which event you'd like to help out with. Or come to the next meeting of Economic Justice L.A. Sunday August 21 at 3p.m.

2617 S. Hauser Blvd.
Los Angeles 90016
(Between La Brea and Fairfax, 4 doors S. of Adams)

Economic Justice L.A. Calls Urgent Action: Tax Big Oil = Fund Education

More lies, misinformation, and propaganda from wealthy Camino Nuevo Executives

Getting information from the CCSA and Jed Wallace is tantamount to a reporter in the 1970s getting information on the health risks of smoking from the Tobacco Industry. — Robert D. Skeels (CEJ)


This Week's Topic: Echo Park's Newest School is an Echo Park Patch piece intended to spark community dialog about the disposition of CRES 14. As we've seen throughout the process, there's what the community thinks and then there's propaganda campaign by CNCA executives and staff. The pernicious Hoa Truong, CNCA's COO, made very misleading, and frankly, mendacious comments under the article. Here is my expanded and revised response to his proverbial pack of lies:

Hoa Truong presents what can only charitably be called half truths here. True CNCA is a 501C3 "non-profit," but that is merely a tax status and says little else. Rather than private companies, they are private corporations (that's what the C in 501C3 stands for). As private corporations, the have unelected boards. In CNCA's case that board has no parents or community members from our attendance boundary.

For more on Camino Nuevo's board, see: 'Social justice hedge fund managers' and 'social justice investment bankers' at Camino Nuevo?

Moreover, although Camino Nuevo Charter Academy are "not for profit" there are no limits to the salaries charter-voucher schools pay their well heeled executives. Ana Ponce, CEO of CNCA, pulls down a whopping $140,639. For more on this see: Crafty Camino Nuevo Charter Charlatans

Mr. Truong mentions that CNCA's "board meetings are public meetings." Note that being able to attend a meeting is a far cry from the community having control over CNCA and their schools' operations. To CNCA's credit, they are one of the very few Charter Management Organizations (CMO) that hold public meetings, most meet in secret. CMOs like CNCA mistakingly equate input with decision making.

Truong, a businessman, not an educator, certainly has a vested interest in not divulging such information. More to the point Truong is a graduate of the vile Broad Residency in Urban Education, a plutocrat funded venture that can only be described as school privatization shock troops. Rather than allowing him and the elites populating his board dictate to us, we have a better idea.

The public school option (LD4 Echo Park Partnership) for CRES 14 will almost certainly be run under the Pilot school model. Pilot schools have Governing School Councils which have real decision making power. Governing School Councils are comprised of community members, parents, teachers, and administrators. There is nothing analogous to this in the corporate charter-voucher school world. CNCA's Ana Ponce herself said the following at a Union Avenue School meeting "Parents having decision making power over a budget is not a sustainable model." Aside from her business buzzwords, she shows an utter contempt for ordinary working class people. In Truong and Ponce's world, decision making is best left to "our betters."

We say no, we demand the right of our community's self determination. We want CRES 14 to be a community controlled public school, not a corporate charter school.

More lies, misinformation, and propaganda from wealthy Camino Nuevo Executives

Street Vendors to protest another case of brutality at MacArthur Park

The Vendedores Ambulantes (Street vendors) of Alvardo y Wilshire (MacArthur Park) will have a protest today against police brutality by the Sheriffs who patrol the Metro Line stops. The protest will be on the sidewalk in front of the Metro Station on Alvarado and 7th Street. 
 
On Tuesday of this week the Sheriffs raided the vendors and beat one of their young members. One of them took a picture of the beating. They asked for the support of the Southern California Immigration Coalition so we are now supporting them. 
 
4:00PM Thursday February 10, 2011
Protest/Press Conference
Metro Station on Alvarado and 7th Street
Organized by the Street Vendors and supported by the Southern California Immigration Coalition

Street Vendors to protest another case of brutality at MacArthur Park

Justice for Manuel Jamines!

Join the community tomorrow to protest the murder of Manuel Jamines. The following articles give more background:

LAPD shooting stirs residents' anger — Victor Fressie

The Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration, and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary — Dr. Danny Weil

Rally and protest information from the SCIC website:

Justice for Manuel Jamines!
Stop Killer Cops!
March and Rally
10 am Saturday, September 18th
6th St and Union

On Sunday, September 5th 2010, Manuel Jamines, a Guatemalan migrant, was shot twice in the head on a crowded street by an LAPD officer known in the community for his brutality. Frank Hernandez, the who carried out the shooting, has already been investigated for shooting an African-American woman and then again more recently for shooting an 18-year-old Latino. He has not been charged with murder or even fired, and is currently on desk duty at the 437 million Parker Center Police HQ.

Eyewitnesses from the community have come forward to expose the police cover-up and revealed that Manuel was unarmed when he was gunned down. But their testimonies were ignored by the police investigators. Shooting like this don't occur in wealthy neigborhoods—only in communities where African-Americans, Latinos and migrants live. The police is trying to cover up the anti-Latino racism tha characterizes their presence in Westlake, but the people are fed up!

District Attorner Cooley Prosecute Hernandez for Murder!
Stop Police Terror in Black, Latino, and Migrant Communities!
Stop the ICE Raids! We Demand Full Legalization!

Contact: 323-602-3480 or 213-712-0370 Dowload Flier for the this march and rally.

ANSWER's local site also has event information.

Justice for Manuel Jamines!