Public Officials and Major Civic Leaders Break with the Bloomberg Version of Mayoral Control

To quote NLERAP founder and NY native, Pedro Pedraza, "it's hitting the fan," friends!

For those of you who haven't yet read the article: "The battle for the soul of a community: scenes from contentious charter school hearing in S. Williamsburg -- and the memory of another controversial co-location 25 years ago," please do so.


Also check out this clip showing the leadership of Luis Garden Acosta, founder of El Puente speaking out on the impact on mayorial control (mentioned in this above piece).

Let the people rise!!

-Patricia


For Immediate Release:
Wednesday February 29th, 2012
Contact: Luis Garden Acosta
718-387-0404

Public Officials and Major Civic Leaders Break with the

Bloomberg Version of Mayoral Control

Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, Councilwoman Diana Reyna and a
host of other public officials and high profile leaders will take the
unprecedented step of breaking with the Bloomberg administration control
of the public school system. A press conference is scheduled for tomorrow,
March 1st, 2012 at 5:00 p.m., Brooklyn Tech High School, 29 Fort
Greene Place, Brooklyn NY, (set up at S. Elliot Street and DeKalb
Avenue) prior to the Panel on Education Policy (PEP) public meeting at
Brooklyn Tech High School at 6:00 p.m.

Coming on the heels of a disturbing meeting with public school Chancellor
Dennis Walcott, public officials as well as church and community leaders
will charge the Chancellor with “Academic Malfeasance” and call for an end
to the PEP process that they decry as the antithesis of good government
practice.

Church and community leaders of the Southside Community Schools
Coalition* will be present to denounce the Bloomberg administration
handling of schools as irresponsible, lacking integrity and a failure for
District 14 (Williamsburg, Greenpoint and Bedford-Stuyvesant) public
schools in general, and Williamsburg Southside schools, in particular.
High school students from at least four high schools will rally across the
street against the “closed back room dealings” of corporate driven charter
networks that do not emanate from the communities they propose to serve,
are not accountable to those communities and who are backed by the
Mayor’s autocratic rule in the use and abuse of public school space.

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*Southside Community Schools Coalition (SCSC) partial listing:

Brooklyn Legal Services Corp., Churches United For Fair Housing, Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez,

Councilmember Diana Reyna, District 14 Community Education Council, El Puente, First Spanish

Presbyterian Church, The Make School Planning Collaborative, Los Sures (the Southside) United HDFC, Nuestros Niños Child Development Centers, Occupy Williamsburg, Parents of P.S. 19, Parents of P.S. 84 Dual Language Program, Parents, Teachers and Staff of M.S. 50, Progress Inc.