URGENT ACTION: RECLAIM CADDO
Reclaiming the Promise of Public Education
Tell the RSD, “Thanks, but NO thanks.”
Sign the Petition NOW!
The Recovery School District is looking to take over a number of schools in Caddo Parish. Join Red River United in telling the RSD, “thank you, but NO thank you.” The RSD does not have a successful track record in transforming academically unacceptable schools (Linwood and Linear). In fact, the RSD has been sued numerous times including twice by the Southern Poverty Law Center, once for handcuffing a first-grader and once for failing to provide services to children with special needs. Our children deserve better than this. We should not knowingly and willingly put our children into a failed system. Our children should not be experimented upon for political and economic gains.
We do not support the hostile state takeover of community schools. We do not support our schools being changed from a public school to a charter school operated by outside private-monied and political interests. We contend that the Caddo Parish School System is best equipped to raise academic standards and that the community deserves a say in the process.
We do not support changing our community schools to a RSD or Charter school. If the RSD decides to move forward with either plan, I choose not to participate.
The power of public education
- Public education is how we fulfill our collective responsibility to give each and every child an opportunity.
- To fulfill this responsibility we need a system of great neighborhood public schools, where educators have the tools and resources to meet the needs of each and every child.
- Public education is the means by which all children, regardless of economic, social or cultural background, can achieve their dreams.
- High-‐quality public education is an economic necessity, a moral imperative and a fundamental civil right.
Under pressure and under assault
Economic and social factors put pressure on our children making it difficult for them to achieve success within the classroom.
- Nearly 1 out of every 2 students in public schools lives in poverty.
- Children living in poverty come to school with one-‐fourth the vocabulary of children from wealthier families.
- Three out of every 5 teachers in America report that they have children who regularly come to school hungry.
- There are more homeless families than at any time since the Great Depression.
- If our nation would invest in high-‐quality education and opportunities for ALL children, we could overcome this inequality.
Public education is under assault by people that demand that we pursue austerity, polarization, privatization and de-‐professionalization.
- They call for cuts to funding for public education and then argue that public education is failing.
- They fixate on testing rather than enabling educators to teach in a way that is engaging and enriching.
- They emphasize sanctions instead of support, and shift responsibility onto the backs of teachers.
- They promote vouchers and charters as alternative “choices” and promote the theory that only a few will succeed.
- Years of top-‐down approaches, mass school closures, privatization, and test fixation with sanctions instead of support hasn’t moved the needle in the right direction.
Reclaiming the promise of public education
We are at a crucial moment when we must reclaim the promise of public education.
- Not what public education is today or what it was in the past, but what public education can be to make sure that all children succeed.
Reclaiming the promise of public education is about:
- Fighting for neighborhood public schools that are safe and welcoming places for teaching and learning.
- Ensuring that teachers and school staff are well‐prepared, are supported, have manageable class sizes and have time to collaborate so they can meet the individual needs of every child.
- Making sure our children have an engaging curriculum that includes art, music and the sciences.
- Ensuring that children and their families have access to wraparound services to meet their social, emotional and health needs.
This vision may look different community by community. But it has a few common elements.
- Reclaiming the promise will bring back the joy of teaching and learning.
- It makes our public schools the center of the community and a place where parents want to send their kids, where kids want to learn and where teachers want to teach.
This is our core and it must be the focus of our work going forward.
This is a vision that works.
- It is a vision of what parents and communities want for their children and the future.
- This movement will stop those that want to privatize and profit at the expense of our children’s wellbeing.
Call to action
We need everyone’s help: educators, parents, students, civic leaders and community members.
- We need to open eyes to the good things happening in our schools—as well as the challenges.
- We need to open minds to this vision for great neighborhood public schools.
- We need to open hearts to joining with us in the effort to ensure all our children get the great education they need and deserve.
None of us can be bystanders. Only by working together can we reclaim the promise of public education.
