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Our only limitations are the ones we accept.
December 19, 2016
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Over the past year, we have won major victories for education justice, despite fighting extremely well-funded privatization forces. In order to continue to build the power we need to transform our schools we have launched a
crowd fundraising campaign!
We will never match them dollar for dollar, but we know that we will out-organize our opponents with our commitment, our love for our communities, and with your unwavering support. We are asking you to give what you can, knowing the people will sustain our movement.
Donate today!
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Detroit Journey for Justice Organization Member Featured on Democracy NOW about
Democracy NOW - Donald Trump has tapped conservative billionaire Betsy DeVos to serve as education secretary. DeVos is the former chair of the Michigan Republican Party and a longtime backer of charter schools and vouchers for private and religious schools. In response, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten said, "In nominating Devos Trump makes it loud and clear that his education policy will focus on privatizing, defunding and destroying public education in America." Since 1970, the DeVos family has invested at least $200 million in various right-wing causes. DeVos's father-in-law is the co-founder of Amway, and her brother is Erik Prince, founder of the mercenary firm Blackwater. For more, we speak to former Assistant Secretary of Education Diane Ravitch, Center for Media and Democracy Executive Director Lisa Graves, and elected member of the Detroit Board of Education Tawanna Simpson.
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Parents, Advocates, and Elected Officials Call on D.O.E to Ensure "Sanctuary Schools" as Hate Crimes Spike
DOE Should Make Proper Investments in Staff Trainings to Tackle Bias, and Parent Workshops on Legal Rights
NEW YORK CITY
(December 8, 2016) - Parents from the NYC Coalition for Educational Justice (CEJ) gathered on the steps of Tweed to call on the NYC Department of Education to do much more to make schools a refuge from racism, sexism, xenophobia and homophobia for students and families in the current national atmosphere. In light of the surge of racist and anti-immigrant harassment and crimes in NYC and nationally, CEJ believes that the DOE must take a much more proactive role in equipping teachers and school staff to support students who are exposed daily to hateful speech and acts through their own experiences, friends and family, and the media; and families who are being threatened with discriminatory federal policies.
With at least half a million students whose families are immigrants to this country, and hundreds of thousands of Muslim students, undocumented students, LGBTQ students, Jewish students, girls and other identities that are targets in the current political climate, the DOE has an imperative to help schools build strong expertise in confronting racism and bias, and support schools to be hubs for critical information on legal rights and recourses. Schools should strive to be sanctuaries from all types of hate and dehumanizing experiences including discriminatory policing practices that disproportionately affect communities of color.
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5 things to know about Betsy DeVos, Trump's new education secretary
1. A top Michigan GOP fundraiser
As a member of the DeVos clan of west Michigan, she is one of the top Republican fundraisers in the state. The family has given millions over the years - including about $10 million in the most recent political cycle - to elect Republicans, including to the campaign efforts of two other presidential candidates, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.
2. A husband who ran for governor...
DeVos' husband, Dick, is the son of Amway co-founder Richard DeVos. He ran as the Republican nominee for Michigan governor against the incumbent, Jennifer Granholm, in 2006, and lost.
3. And other interesting family ties
She's the daughter of west Michigan businessman Edgar Prince, whose auto supplies company made lighted visors and many other products before being sold to Johnson Controls in 1996. Her brother, Erik Prince, is a former Navy SEAL who founded the private security company Blackwater, which came under criticism for actions during the Iraq War.
4. A big vouchers advocate...
DeVos and her husband led a failed effort in 2001 to amend the Michigan constitution to provide vouchers that would allow students to attend private schools at public expense.
5. And a backer of school choice
DeVos is on the board of directors for the Great Lakes Education Project, which advocates for school choice and charter schools. She also chairs the board of directors of the American Federation for Children, another choice advocacy group. She and her husband have been big backers of charter schools in Michigan, heavily funding candidates who share their views, and pushing back against efforts to require more accountability of charter schools.
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A sobering look at what Betsy DeVos did to education in Michigan - and what she might do as secretary of education
Detroit Free Press - The people who best know the education advocacy work of Betsy DeVos, the billionaire tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to be his education secretary, are in Michigan, where she has been involved in reform for decades.
DeVos is a former Republican Party chairwoman in Michigan and chair of the pro-school-choice advocacy group American Federation for Children, and she has been a shining light to members of the movement to privatize public education by working to create programs and pass laws that require the use of public funds to pay for private school tuition in the form of vouchers and similar programs. She has also been a force behind the spread of charter schools in Michigan, most of which have recorded student test scores in reading and math below the state average.
Many pro-school-choice groups have praised the choice, saying DeVos will work hard to grow new programs that give parents more school choice. But public education advocates say that they fear she will help propel America's public education system toward destruction.
Read the full article
here
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Detroit Free Press - In Detroit, parents of school-age children have plenty of choices, thanks to the nation's largest urban network of charter schools.
What remains in short supply is quality.
In Brightmoor, the only high school left is Detroit Community Schools, a charter boasting more than a decade of abysmal test scores and, until recently, a superintendent who earned $130,000 a year despite a dearth of educational experience or credentials.
On the west side, another charter school, Hope Academy, has been serving the community around Grand River and Livernois for 20 years. Its test scores have been among the lowest in the state throughout those two decades; in 2013 the school ranked in the first percentile, the absolute bottom for academic performance. Two years later, its charter was renewed.
Or if you live downtown, you could try Woodward Academy, a charter that has limped along near the bottom of school achievement since 1998, while its operator has been allowed to expand into other communities.
Read the full article
here
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Detroit Knows Best About Betsy DeVos
Mother Helen Moore
In 2000 Betsy DeVos, a billionaire, led the voucher proposal placed on the Michigan ballot. Many of us met and organized to defeat her effort. We won, but she never stopped. She spent millions of her and her husband's money to organize support for her efforts. She gave millions to the politicians to support her efforts to destroy public schools which has had an adverse impact on black and brown school systems in Michigan. She even organized her own corporation, Great Lakes Education Project, carry out her mission to destroy public education. She has been nominated as the Secretary of The US Department of Education. In my opinion this will destroy any hope of maintaining a sustainable education for our students.
Michigan has more charter schools than any other state. Most of them are failing. There is no accountability for these schools and anyone can start a charter school. These schools have taken money from traditional public schools because they have been designated as public schools. Most of our schools have been closed due to parents not having a true public school in their neighborhood. Detroit Emergency Managers have closed 2/3 of schools. The enrollment has decreased from almost 180,000 students to less than 50,000 students since the state takeover of our public schools. As schools close, charters move in and there are no schools for the very poor to attend except the charter schools who move into the former neighborhood schools. The parents who can afford to transport their students to suburban schools because of the negative publicity against traditional public schools that was designed by the state governor and republican politicians have been responsible for over 60,000 students who could attend Detroit Public Schools have chosen to escape the inferior education not knowing that their student is attending a failing charter school. When they find out, or when their child is not accepted (special education) in a charter school or a suburban school, they keep changing schools. Some students have attended 5 charter schools before they finally graduate. Some special education students and other students have been pushed out of school and delivered to prison by way of the Student Code of Conduct.
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Parents, City Officials Demand Schools Combat Student Discrimination and Bias Attacks
Spectrum News New York - With the rise of hate crimes since Election Day, parent activists want New York City Department of Education to take action to combat discrimination in the schools. NY1's Education Reporter, Lindsey Christ, filed the following report.
Parents, activists, and elected officials took to the steps of the Department of Education on Thursday to demand all 135,000 public school employees to be trained in how to fight bias.
"If anywhere they need to be able to reach out and get resources and support, it's within our schools," says Tiffany Jones of The Black Institute.
The advocates say that following the caustic presidential campaign, many families feel targeted.
"We are under attack right now in so many ways, and the chilling effect from insensitive comments by staffers and teachers in our schools," says City Council Member Carlos Menchaca. "Or kids bullying other kids, and no one doing anything about it is really eroding the trust and the safety that our kids need to learn in our schools."
The City Council this week passed a resolution reaffirming the city's commitment to remain a so-called Sanctuary City, a safe haven for immigrants, regardless of their legal status.
The NYPD says hate crimes have soared 115 percent in the city since Election Day, a spike that some advocates blame on emboldened supporters of President-elect Donald Trump.
Parents and elected officials say they don't have numbers showing an increase in such incidents in schools, but anecdotal evidence suggests it's a problem.
About half of the 1.1 million students are from immigrant families and about 10 percent are Muslim. The advocates say they also worry about bias against Jewish students, LBGTQ students, and female students.
A spokesperson says the schools chancellor believes all schools should be safe havens but would not commit to requiring all staff undergo training.
The city says it has hired nearly 500 new guidance counselors, social workers, and mental health consultants over the past two years.
However, Maria Gil says her six daughters are struggling after the election and do not feel comfortable talking about it at school.
"There's not an administrator, there's nobody in the schools that can give the support to these little children," says Gil.
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Midwest Journey for Justice Regional Community Organizing Training
How to Build a Base of Leaders
Work in Coalitions & Alliances
January 21, 2016
10 am - 5 pm
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Breakfast Served at 9 am
Training begins at 10 am
D
ayton Boys Prep
1923 W. 3rd St.
Dayton, OH 45417
Registration: $25
Scholarships Available
Contact: Jaribu Lee
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Betsy Devos And The Plan To Break Public Schools
The New Yorker - Among the points that can be made in favor of Betsy DeVos, Donald Trump's billionaire nominee for the position of Secretary of Education, are the following: She has no known ties to President Vladimir Putin, unlike Trump's nominee to head the State Department, Rex Tillerson, who was decorated with Russia's Order of Friendship medal a few years ago. She hasn't demonstrated any outward propensity for propagating dark, radical-right-leaning conspiracy theories, unlike Michael T. Flynn, Trump's designated national-security adviser. She has not actively called for the dismantling of the department she is slated to head, as have Rick Perry, Trump's nominee for Energy Secretary, and Scott Pruitt, the nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency.
That the absence of such characteristics should bear noting only underlines the dystopian scope of Trump's quest to complete his cabinet of cronies. On the other hand, DeVos has never taught in a public school, nor administered one, nor sent her children to one. She is a graduate of Holland Christian High School, a private school in her home town of Holland, Michigan, which characterizes its mission thus: "to equip minds and nurture hearts to transform the world for Jesus Christ."
Read the full article
here
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Betsy DeVos: Fighter for kids or destroyer of public schools?
Detroit Free Press - Betsy DeVos, the wealthy Republican activist appointed to be the next secretary of education for the U.S., will either be a strong fighter for the education of kids or destroy public education.
That about sums up the strong opinions about President-elect Donald Trump's decision to appoint DeVos to the highest education role in the nation. School choice and charter advocates praised her appointment. Union officials, Democratic activists and public school advocates slammed it.
DeVos is "an inspired choice," Dan Quisenberry, president of the Michigan Association of Public School Academies, a charter school advocacy group, said in a statement.
"Betsy DeVos has been a champion for schoolchildren for decades, always putting their needs ahead of everything else," Quisenberry said.
John Austin, the president of the State Board of Education in Michigan, disagreed on DeVos' record.
"It's like putting the fox in charge of the henhouse, and hand-feeding it schoolchildren," he said. "Devos' agenda is to break the public education system, not educate kids, and replace it with a for-profit model."
DeVos is a polarizing figure in education circles because of her strong support for school choice and charter schools. Some critics have said advocates like her push school choice with little regard for the quality of options parents have. She and other advocates believe strongly that parents should be able to decide where their kids go to school, and that kids shouldn't be trapped in failing schools. But critics say choice advocates ignore the need for quality options, say charters have siphoned money away from traditional public schools and point to data that show charter schools aren't performing any better, and in some cases are performing worse, than their counterparts.
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Journey for Justice (J4J) is an alliance of grassroots community, youth, and parent-led organizations in 22 cities across the country: Atlanta, Baltimore, Birmingham, Boston, Camden, Chicago, Dayton, Detroit, Eupora, Jersey City, Kilmichael, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Newark, New Orleans, New York City, Patterson, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington D.C., and Wichita
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