The Education Town Hall is temporarily unable to broadcast due to stay-at-home and social distancing orders. Meanwhile, some urgent information and a few pertinent, free events.
Free, Open Virtual Events — 4/16 and 4/23 — plus a Local One
SNCC 60th Anniversary, April 16
Join us Thursday night for an intergenerational conversation with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, in celebration of the 60th anniversary of their founding. Register at bit.ly/SNCC60th
This event is organized by Highlander Research and Education Center (originally Highlander Folk School), which was involved in SNCC’s history and has its own fascinating history, supporting leaders in the early Labor and Civil Rights movements, including Bob Moses, Septima Clark, Fannie Lou Hamer, Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, and many others.
Remaking Schools — 4/23 Event
From event organizers:
Remaking Schools in the Time of Corona Virus
- What has this crisis taught us about the role of public schools in society?
- What have we learned about what really matters in education during this time?
- When we re-open schools, what kind of education will we have, will we demand?
The Covid-19 crisis has upended public education around the country. Join three radical education activists in conversation about what this crisis means for public education now and how moving forward we can continue to fight for the schools our students deserve,
Jesse Hagopian is an award-winning educator and a leading voice on issues of educational equity and social justice unionism. He is an editor for Rethinking Schools magazine and is the co-editor of Teaching for Black Lives, and editor of More Than a Score: The New Uprising Against High-Stakes Testing. [Previous guest on Education Town Hall.)
Noliwe Rooks is the W.E.B Du Bois Professor of Literature at Cornell University and the author of Cutting School: Privatization, Segregation, and the End of Public Education which won an award for non-fiction from the Hurston/Wright Foundation.
Wayne Au is a Professor in the School of Educational Studies at the University
of Washington Bothell. He is a long-time Rethinking Schools editor, co-editor of Teaching for Black Lives and author of A Marxist Education: Learning to Change the World.
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This event is co-sponsored by Haymarket Books, New Press and Rethinking Schools.
Every dollar we take in from this event will go directly to support our collective work of sharing ideas for changing the world—a project that has never been more necessary or more urgent. We need your help to continue to do the work.
While all of our events are freely available, we ask that those who are able make a solidarity donation in support of our continuing to do this important publishing and organizing work. All donations will be shared between the three sponsoring organizations, Haymarket Books, New Press and Rethinking Schools.
Check out the websites for the sponsoring organizations for many additional education-related resources.
Ward 6 Virtual Event —
“Flowers in the Midst”: Managing feelings of grief, loss and separation during COVID-19
This session is scheduled for Friday, April 17th at 10:00am. Please use this form to register for this special edition of our upcoming Caregiver Cafe’ focused on understanding and exploring feelings of grief, loss and separation during this unprecedented time. The link for the presentation will be emailed before the session.
Registration required (Ward 6 school families and educators)
Input and Action Needed
School Librarians
New DC public school policy will declare school librarians non-essential to the school:
New DCPS policy gives schools the option to cut school library programs. This policy makes Library Media Specialists “non-essential,” giving principals the option to eliminate school library programs for students. We should not follow the failed education policies in New York, Chicago & Philadelphia in closing school library programs?
More information here and action link.
Lack of Resources for Distance Learning
Learn about and take action on disparities in computer access across DC communities.
Here, in addition, is a link to donate a working or non-working laptop or otherwise engage in, or fund, the work of getting computers and wifi access to students.
More on this important topic coming in some form of broadcast soon, we hope.
Demands: Agree? Disagree? Something to Add?
From the Mutual Aid Network, a survey on demands:
We are developing a list of demands with the help of community members, students of all ages, organizers, advocates and activists. We want to make sure that our finalized list of demands has been shared with and supported by as many DC folks as possible, particularly Black, brown, immigrant, low-income, indigenous and native Washingtonian residents. Take the survey today and give your input today!
BUDGET SEASON, $600 Million in Losses
Please visit DC Fiscal Policy Institute and Coalition for DC Public Schools for information on the budget season, which is marching along even though no public input can be obtained in usual fashion. More information to come and/or a show on this topic, if it can be arranged Covid-style.
Education Town Hall Forum 