Next Fight Back Friday is May 20th!

FBF gives every school community a chance to stand up and say NO to the cuts and lay-offs at whatever level the community can be organized.

• Everyone wears black (Wear black, take our schools back!).  It can be as simple as just that.
• We have stickers people can print out with messages about the cuts and the kinds of changes we would all like to see in education that folks can wear and give out. 
• We have fliers that you can adjust to fit your school, which you can use on the day of.
• Many schools have a picket outside of school either before or after the school day. We have fliers you can use to publicize the picket during the week leading up to the 20th.
• The fliers will be in at least English and Spanish, and if we can, Chinese.
• We have post cards that we are asking people to get signed that will then be delivered en-masse to city council members. You can print those out, or come get them at a couple of different locations.
• We ask everyone to take pictures to send in that then go on our fight back friday blog and face book page.

We will be putting out a press release and press statement and pushing the press to cover as many school events as we can. And the more schools participating the more coverage we will get.

Please, even if it sounds hard or overwhelming, consider pushing your school community to join in. Email Julie Cavanaugh (juliereed15@hotmail.com) with any questions. We will send you the tool kit with all the fliers and stickers and such. We are happy to help you think through all the steps.

This is a way for your whole community to work together, parents, students and staff, to build solidarity within and across schools. These actions are great for training ourselves to do the organizing that we need if we are to turn the tide of the destruction of public education. In order to fight for the transformations we all want to see in our education system, we need to do the grassroots educating, organizing and mobilizing that it takes to move whole communities.

The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman

Please join us for the premiere of our movie, The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman. The official premiere will be held at Riverside Church in Harlem on May 19th, 2011 from 6-10 pm.  This event is free and open to the public. Diane Ravitch, among others, will be our honored guest.  The evening will include a panel featuring a NYC parent, teacher, and student as well as Dr. Ravitch and a few other prominent  education advocates.  Great thanks to the Mission and Social Justice Committee at Riverside Church for sponsoring the event.

For more information please see the movie website  http://www.waitingforsupermantruth.org/