Join Us May 26 at Harvard Square to Protest Arne Visit

SPEAK OUT FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION

Prominent educators speak out against so-called “Race To The Top”

Press release       Contact:  Jenny Kastner 617-945-2869

While Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, is inside Harvard Yard performing as Chief Marshal of his 25^th Harvard Class Reunion, a group of prominent educators and public school teachers will gather outside to offer a public critique of his policies.

WHEN: THURSDAY, MAY 26^TH 10 A.M. TO 12 NOON

WHERE:  HARVARD SQUARE’S “THE PIT,” BEHIND THE HARVARD SQUARE SUBWAY STATION

WHY:  TO PROTEST THE POLICIES OF SECRETARY OF EDUCATION, ARNE DUNCAN

WHO:  Deborah Meier, Founder of Boston’s Mission Hill School, author, and Senior Scholar of Education at NYU; Alfie Kohn, author of FEEL-BAD EDUCATION: and Other Contrarian Essays on Children and Schooling; Nancy Carlsson-Paige, professor of early childhood education at Lesley University and author of Taking Back Childhood; Ruth Rodriquez-Fay of Citizens for Public Schools; Lisa Guisbond of FairTest, National Center for Fair and Open Testing;  Marc McGovern, Cambridge School Committee member;  Whitney Elliot, Boston public school teacher and author of blog, The “Greedy” Teacher;  Diane Levin, Professor of Education, Wheelock College;  Larry Aronson, retired Cambridge public school teacher; and founder of Social Justice Works!; Merrie Najimy, President of the Concord Teachers’ Association, Concord, MA; Larry Ward, former Cambridge City Councilor and FairTest organizer;  Betty Burkes, peace educator, former President of (U.S.) WILPF, and now working in New Orleans public schools’ restorative justice program; and Liza Womack, Harvard Alum (1984),15-year veteran elementary schoolteacher and an organizer of the Speak Out.

This Speak Out is a message to the Harvard alumni who honor him today as Chief Marshal, and to Secretary Duncan himself, that his policies are corroding our public educations system instead of supporting it. The speakers demand an end to high stakes testing, equitable funding for all schools, curriculum developed for and by local school communities, and teacher, family and community leadership in forming public education policies.  Many of today’s speakers have endorsed, and will be speaking at a national march and series of workshops in Washington, DC in July.  For more information, contact www.saveourschoolsmarch.org