Voice of Revolution

Education is a Right

People Demand: Vote Yes for Redesign Plans Created by the Schools
Public Control of Public Schools!

On January 14, teachers, students, parents and community organizers stood together to demand that the Buffalo Board of Education Vote Yes for redesign plans created by the public schools. Four schools, Bennett, East, Lafayette and MLK are currently scheduled for closure and potentially privatization. Participants in the action, which included many youth and teachers, said NO! to these plans. No to privatization, no to closing public schools. Through signs, chants and speeches, the firm and united stand was for Public Control of Public Schools. This resonated repeatedly in the chant, Whose Schools? Our Schools! Whose Schools? Our Schools!

The action was timed to take place at the same time as the private executive session of the Board of Education (BOE) at Waterfront School. In taking their stand and giving space to the public to speak and strengthen its unity, the action showed that it is the people who are democratic and standing for the equal right to education for all.

Despite the bitter cold, more than 100 gathered outside Waterfront to speak out, chant and make their views known. Protesters were blocked from entering Waterfront by top Board officials. This was despite the fact that the building was open, is public, and the action would not have disrupted any classes or other school activities. The undemocratic stand of these Board officials was further evident when they refused to allow signs into the public BOE meeting, held at 5:30.

Protesters were undeterred. They organized to have t-shirts making clear their demands to Vote Yes for Bennett, East, Lafayette, and MLK. Many also spoke at the meeting, turning it into a speak-out as well. A large crowd of more than 250, with many youth and teachers, participated inside. In the public comment section, not a single person called for voting down the redesign plans created by the schools. Students, parents and teachers one after the other supported the plans and keeping their public schools public and open. When asked by one of the speakers, an MLK teacher, if they wanted public control of their public schools, the majority stood to say yes.

Students from different schools, including Bennett and Riverside — scheduled to be closed next year — spoke and supported their teachers and made clear teachers and youth are not the problem. Together people expressed their readiness to tackle the real problems facing Buffalo schools — such as the need for more innovative curriculum and having the schools serve as organizing centers for the communities that surround them. The stand of teachers, students and parents together made clear the public is ready to tackle and solve problems with a Can Do! spirit.

In various ways people brought to the fore that the main problem is that students, teachers, staff and parents do not decide matters of education and this is unjust and undemocratic. They are the experts and they cannot be shut out, as top Board officials and Governor Cuomo are trying to do.

As one speech put it, this is not the time for czars or Kings — individual appointed executives dictating such public matters as education and closing of schools. Modern democracy and modern education require an increase in the role of the public, not eliminating it.

It was clear from the large crowd and many speakers that the public is ready to govern and decide and that is the fight now being waged. As the crowd loudly told the Board: Whose Schools? Our Schools! Who Decides? We Decide!

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Mobilizing Mounts to Keep Public Schools Open and Public

We post below the mobilizing leaflet by the Buffalo Parent-Teacher Organization being distributed by and to teachers, parents, students, staff, administrators and alumni citywide. It is part of mounting efforts to unite and mobilize all to participate in public meetings at each of the four schools and go all out for the January 28 School Board meeting where a vote on the redesign plans will occur. We post below images of the front and back of the leaflet and encourage all to join in distributing it.
Yes to plans created by the schools, Yes to Public Control!

(Link to leaflet pdf )

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