Joshua Liebner, a National Board Certified Teacher in Los
Angeles, has been fighting the destruction of public education in Los Angeles
and across the nation. He was alarmed to learn that the 1% just became sponsors
of education coverage in the Los Angeles Times. He now believes it is time for
the Black Lives Matter movement to ally with those who are fighting the
corporate assault on public education:
This is an urgent appeal to the leaders
of Black Lives Matter:
It is not that far a distance from "I can't learn" to
"I can't breathe".
The objectives and consciousness raising of Black Lives Matter
is inextricably linked to the education that all our kids are exposed to.
The Education Reform movement as being pushed by all the GOP
candidates, but alas, is backed by many Neo-liberals in the Democratic Party
including President Obama and his Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.
The 1% of this country funds "philanthropic"
foundations that support a disastrous public education policy that offers more
testing, more computerized instruction, less field trip and enrichment
opportunities, larger class sizes and more scripted instruction to the children
in urban school systems.
It is the complete opposite kind of education that they desire
for their own children.
The Gates Foundation, the Broad Foundation, the Wassermans and
The United Way are just a few of the organizations that are dedicated to making
the world MORE unequal and MORE unjust with their Orwellian perversion of Civil
Rights language. They seek to create more disparity, more dysfunction in our
communities.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was brilliantly capable of seeing
how many factors were linked to his original cause of equality and justice. In
the last years of his life, King was an outspoken critic of the Vietnam War and
a champion of the War on Poverty for all people. All these issues were part and
parcel with Civil Rights and by addressing them, King was advancing his
original calling to the rights and dignity of black people in America (and
ultimately the world over).
King was fearless in criticizing the power structure of this
country who operated under different rules than the rest of its people. Even
when they were on "his side" for some issues, he never compromised in
"shutting up" on all the other causes they were still guilty of
"shutting down" that affected black people.
There is nothing more glaring than the type of education that
leaders of the wealthy Education Reform Movement desire for their own kids in
contrast to what they prescribe for everyone else's children.
I would hope for activism and a presence at Sidwell Friends
where President Obama sends his kids.
I would hope for activism and a presence at the University of
Chicago Lab School where Arne Duncan sends his kids.
Black Education Matters and if Eli Broad and the other
plutocrats believe that Dr. King would be on their side in this struggle, it is
time to mount a mighty offensive to disabuse this belief.
Consider where your kids go to school, how they are funded and
their daily conditions and experiences. Imagine how different their future and
opportunities would be if the priorities of the rich were the birthright of
them as well.
We in the front lines of urban education are committed to social
justice for all children and believe in the rights of parents, schools and
communities to act in the best interest of their children. Not the Super PAC's
of the 1% who have vested interests in profiting off the system that is
supposed to assist our children--not fatten their own stock portfolios.
I would hope our causes can be linked in the mutual interest of
our children.
We want these kids to breathe and learn and go on to change the
world.
Yours in solidarity,
--Joshua Leibner, NBCT
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