True North

The Minneapolis School Board voted December 11 to adopt new recommendations for reform, prompting praise from leaders and disruptive protests from staff. Now it seems some teachers are looking to build support from students in a radical way. Found at Youth Against War & Racism's Facebook page:

Emergency YAWR Meeting! to organize student solidarity for Minneapolis Teachers' Contract Struggle
Sunday, Dec. 16th, 4pm - 6pm
Arise! Bookstore, 2441 Lyndale Ave.

YAWR is asking students from all over (not just Minneapolis schools) to gather Sunday to plan a solidarity campaign for the teachers. Students have more power than most people realize. If we take bold action to support our teachers, the media and the District will have to pay attention. Some solidarity ideas we discussed at the last YAWR meeting include:

- Organize protests and maybe even a mass walkout in support of the teachers.
- mass leafleting of our fellow students to explain why students should support teachers.
- Passing out buttons in school saying: "Students and Teachers United" (we will have buttons at the meeting).
- Doing a petition drive in the schools to show student support for teachers.
- Making a bunch of red t-shirts saying "We support our teachers" or something to wear every Wednesday (the teachers union is getting teachers to "wear red on Wednesdays" to protest the District attacks.
- Organizing teach-ins after school to explain the the issues to fellow students.

The MPS has been in a crisis, and administration is willing to try a new approach to turn things around — one approach awarding successful staff and removing low performers. Some teachers in this district appear to be indoctrinating students into socialist group-think, and may be in fear of losing their tenured positions. Coordination with YAWR seems apparent when reading the call to action. Here are the telling sections (emphasis mine):

If the District gets away with these attacks on teachers, it will make our schools even worse, because more and more teachers will want to find better jobs where they can afford health-care, housing, and a decent life for their families. Taking away seniority rights means administrators can easily get rid of teachers they don't like ( i.e. all the cool teachers who support student activism, teach us about alternative ideas, and refuse to do things by the book). This will create a more rigid, cold, and test-oriented educational environment in our schools, meaning students will also leave in larger numbers. These attacks are part of wider corporate agenda to de-fund, dismantle, and privatize our national public education system.

We are going to try and get a couple teachers union reps to come to the Sunday meeting to explain the situation more for us.

We need to stand up and say ENOUGH!
Money for Education, Not War!
Tax the corporations instead of cutting social programs and schools!
Tell the Minneapolis School Board to get a spine and lead a bold community struggle to force the state government to pay for the budget crisis, rather than making the teachers pay!

More info:
***Teachers Union website: http://mft59.org/
***Updates on student solidarity at: myspace.com/yawrMN

Join the Teacher Support Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=7295099125

These kids are learning the three Rs: Radicalism, Ranting and Rallying. It seems standing up for change is cool, unless it's not in alignment with a socialist agenda. If I were a school district administrator, YAWR would be drop-kicked out of my schools (along with teachers like Meredith Aby who heads YAWR at Bloomington Jefferson High).