As part of the National Mobilization for Great Public Schools, more than 40
Education First! house parties were hosted by Massachusetts parents and
teachers across the Commonwealth on Sept 22. ParentsCARE! is one of the
sponsoring organizations. Massachusetts house parties were held in Bedford,
Boston, Brockton, Cambridge, Charlton, Jamaica Plain, East Freetown, Everett,
Foxboro, Hudson, Nantucket, Newburyport, North Adams, Pittsfield, Randolph,
Reading, Roxbury, Somerville, Southborough, South Dennis, Springfield,
Turner's Falls, Vineyard Haven, and Worcester,
The Massachusetts events were among the almost 4,000 House Parties for Great
Public Schools held across the country with over 50,000 people in attendance.
They represent growing concern over the current administration's cuts in
education spending, the unrealistic requirements of the No Child Left Behind
Act (NCLB), increasing costs of college education, and failure to upgrade and
invest in school buildings and facilities. [You can sign the petition at this
website!]
Organizers and participants plan to follow upon the house parties with a
national call-in day to congress. "Education seems to have been marginalized
as an issue in the presidential campaign. We hope an organized effort like
this will send a message to our elected leaders that good schools matter and
need substantive support, not punitive and under funded policies like NCLB,"
said Lisa Guisbond, who attended a house party.
"With the federal and state governments wielding more control of our local
public schools, we need to build new coalitions organized to press for
investment in quality public education at the state and national levels" noted
Cambridge School committee member Richard Harding. Cambridge house parties
were hosted by Margot Welch in North Cambridge and Jonathan and Jackie King in
Area IV. More than 35 parents and teachers attended, including State Rep Alice
Wolf in North Cambridge and School Committee member Harding in Area IV.
After viewing a video prepared by the Great Public Schools Coalition, house
party attendees discussed courses of action. The activities planned by the
Cambridge groups include a) Circulating petitions calling for increased
federal funding for public schools and for amending the No Child Left Behind
Act, to be submitted to Senators Kennedy and Kerry, and Rep Capuano, and b)
Organizing a public forum in Cambridge on the impact of NCLB on Cambridge
Schools.
The Coalition for Great Public Schools (
www.greatpublicschools.org)
includes more than 40 education advocacy organizations led by the National
Education Association, ACORN, NAACP National Voter Fund, US Hispanic
Leadership Institute, and
MoveOn.org. The
Massachusetts members are ParentsCARE! and FairTest (
www.Fairtest.org).
Many of those at the meetings expressed concern over the use of the flawed
MCAS tests as a single measure of educational progress used to show compliance
with the NCLB law. Others were primarily concerned over the budget cuts both
at the state and federal level, and the increasing difficulty of maintaining
small class sizes, extra-curricular programs and well-trained teachers in the
schools. All agreed on the need to make our children's education a national
priority, and to press for accountability of our legislators and political
leaders, which would match the accountability being demanded of students and
teachers"
