With promises of support from elected officials and the leaders of a variety of community groups, the chief organizer of the Newark Teachers Union (NTU) today said its members would set up picket lines around schools, begin a rule-book slowdown, and refuse any volunteer work before or after school. The immediate cause of the “job action” was a decision by the district’s state leaders to include eight more schools—including Weequahic and East Side high schools– in a controvesial reform program that would weaken employee rights in the affected schools.
But the union and civic leaders made it clear they were reacting to four years of radical change imposed by Cami Anderson, appointed by Gov. Chris Christie to run the Newark schools four years ago. Shouts of “Enough! Enough!” echoed through the NTU headquarters as Abeigon and others promised action against the 20-year-old state regime.
“We will stop covering up this crime,” John Abeigon told nearly 100 of the union’s supporters at a press conference at NTU headquarters. “We will stop being co-conspirators in the dismantling of public education in the state of New Jersey and the city of Newark.”
In four years of struggle between Anderson and a growing number of residents and their leaders, a score of public schools have been closed, privately-operated charter schools have expanded in ways Anderson admits robs money from public schools, and hundreds of teachers have been laid off or assigned as “educators without placement” –fully-paid teachers without regular jobs whose salaries consume nearly $30 million in public funds every year.
Although anger has grown among employees, parents, students, and others, the various groups have so far failed to find a way to channel that hostility effectively to combat Anderson. She has refused to meet with residents publicly for more than a year and generally has ignored the criticism directed against her. Through state education Commissioner David Hespe, nominally her boss, Christie has praised her, given her contract extensions, and increased her salary.
Anderson clearly will stay for as long as Christie wants her to stay. He has told the city’s mayor, Ras Baraka—who was elected in an anti-Anderson campaign—that he, Christie, not Baraka, is the “decider” of what happens in Newark. Christie has said he doesn’t care what Baraka thinks.
Baraka was not present at yesterday’s press conference but Dr. Lauren Wells, his chief school officer, told the group the mayor would support what the teachers decide to do.
“Enough is enough,” Wells said. “This is not how you change the schools. “
Wells referred to Anderson’s policies of closing neighborhood public schools while expanding charters as a ”plan to divide and destroy our neighborhoods.”
She told the teachers, “We support you.”
It was unclear just how far that support would go. Strikes by public employees are illegal in New Jersey and they rarely garner the support of elected officials. If, however, the teachers did strike, Baraka would have great influence in preventing the kinds of mass arrests that marked the 11-week strike in 1971.
Mildred Crump, the president of the Newark City Council, was more direct. “I will support you,” she told the teachers. “I am not afraid.”
Five members of the Newark school board also showed up to show their support—leading to the possibility that Newark might be the scene of the first teachers’ strike supported by its local school board. The state has stripped the board of most of its powers, but the members do act as a barometer of anti-state feeling. Earlier this week, a slate of pro-Baraka, anti-Anderson board members were elected.
Abeigon sought to persuade the supporters of a job action that the state administration had broken the law and teachers were complicit in allowing her to continue. He cited the many unsuccessful efforts by his union and other groups to seek redress.
“We can no longer sit by and watch the needs of special needs children go ignored by the New Jersey Department of Education and the US Education Department,” Abeigon said. “We cannot watch as children are baby-sat each day of the school year by substitutes or inexperienced and uncertificated new teachers who struggle day in and day out in their new careers without resources or mentors as required by law.”
He accused Anderson is using veteran teachers as “scapegoats for every failure she creates.”
Abeigon promised to “force the moment to its crisis—we will say no and we will escalare the chaos.”
What could spell genuine trouble for Anderson and Christie is the expressed willingness of community groups to join with the teachers in imposing crippling job actions. The relationship between the teacher union and community groups often has been fraught with tension. But yesterday, leaders like Deborah Gregory, the head of the Newark NAACP, and others urged the teachers to greater militance.
“It’s about time,” she said. “You’ve been quiet too long. You’ve been cooperative.”
Gregory conceded she knew many teachers were afraid for their jobs but she noted—and this could be a decisive factor in the struggle—“the layoffs are coming anyway.”
Widespread support for a job action might become a national embarrassment for Christie as he takes his still-unannounced presidential campaign to Iowa and New Hampshire. Leaders of a utility workers union hinted strongly lights could go out in school headquarters.
One of the most ominous warnings directed at Christie and Anderson came from a leader of growing organization aimed at ending urban violence—the Newark Anti-Violence Coalition (NAVC). The NAVC has proved its ability several times to shut down traffic thrghout the city in its street rallies against community violence. Paralyzing Newark would bring national attention on the failure of Anderson to bring acceptable reform to the Newark schools. Leaders of the major business—like Prudential Insurance—might reconsider their support for Anderson and a 20-year state regime that has failed to improve the city schools.
So it mean something when NAVC’s Sharif Malik Amenhotep forcefully endorsed the NTU promise of a job action and told the crowd:
“You know we will shut down whatever you need to shut down.”
Did I miss any mention of the NEW caucus that has been advocating for this type of action – and closing down traffic at Broad and Market – for years? Call me cynical but on the heels of the NTU election I find it interesting that Abeigon suddenly adopts more radical approaches of the NEW caucus – a group that could well take over the union this election (nearly did last election). Current NTU leadership signed merit pay, and certainly was complicit in Anderson’s destruction year after year as renewals and turn arounds were announced. So now they wake up….Yeh, call me cynical.
Becca fields, your cynical. Where is your picket sign? This is the same BS that keeps your pals Christie, Anderson and Booker in office. The real concern should be, how do we stop this ‘evil empire in Newark’, not who is stopping it. Thanks again Bob, your coverage of these crimes is unmatched.
NEW Caucus has had majority control of the NTU Executive Board since the last election and hasn’t accomplished a darn thing. At Advisory Board meeting all they do is hand out their New Caucus literature. They don’t even support the Union that they belong to. True they blocked Broad and Market once or twice with their face masks, hoodies and bongo drums–what has that gotten us? God help the members of the NTU if they win this election and bring that TFA Leah Z Owens into the organization. Then Cami will have really won, a snitch inside 1019 Broad Street.
I support the new caucus because they are progressive and straight forward in their approach. The current union and its complacent leadership sat around and did nothing. In fact they signed merit pay and stabbed middle of the road teachers in the back with a bad contract.
Imagine this: On the old PHD scale my teacher salary should be 80K now yet thanks to the new contract it is around 62K and I lost two years of increases! Rather than step 14 I am on 12.. Some deal hehhh…
Now all of the sudden that the election is near the members mailboxes and emails are inundated with emails from Abeigon & his infighting stooges! Look at their ranks.. Some of the most despicable and mercurial characters out there! Lastly, has anyone seen Joe D down at the Union lately? This election I will campaign hard for the New Caucasus because they mean what they say.
NEW Caucus was presented with the facts about members wanting to see job actions and the majority of them voted against taking any. They want credit for playing bongos and shutting down Broad and Market. That didn’t bring my Aide back to the classroom-it was an NTU Civil Service case filed by John Abecon that got her her job back.
I can understand why–at this point in human history–many veteran teachers might assume that anyone who was ever in TFA is part of some vast conspiracy
I myself have often joked that the mind-control device TFA implanted in my brain must be malfunctioning because I am obviously not getting the same messages from the mother ship as Cami Anderson. Even worse than all the damage that has been done to students by ill-prepared TFA recruits is the havoc wrought by the various public-school-system-destroying arch-villain superintendents the organization has spawned.
Leah joined in 2004. I joined in 2006. Maybe we were both fools to do so. Certainly, speaking only for myself, after nine years teaching in NPS, I now see joining TFA as the wrong thing to have done, morally and politically. But, newsflash: their recruiting slogan was not “Join the Forces of Evil.” It is possible to be part of something and ultimately reject and repudiate it, and many decent people who got into teaching via TFA have done so. We, however, tend to attract less attention than the likes of Michelle Rhee, Cami Anderson, etcetera, in large part because a) many of us are still classroom teachers and b) we tend not to harbor the sort of ruthless personal ambition that lends itself to being a well-funded lackey of the powerful.
With regard to John Abeigon and Mike Dixon and the press conference described above: I would love it if the campaign described were to actually take place. Speaking as a union member who is NOT a member of the executive board, I don’t see the current leadership as having done the organizing work to truly fight the power in the way they are claiming. Frankly, I see the current union administration as offering members (at best) a sort of “hospice care” as the school system dies. Most of their efforts seem to involve trying to make sure tenured teachers are not unjustly fired, which in and of itself is well and good. However, I believe they have accepted that Newark is to become another New Orleans and are just seeking to ease the pain of that transition. Either that, or they are actually in denial about the fact that such a shift is–at this point–little short of a fait accompli.
In my opinion, NEW Caucus is the only group with any chance of taking over the union that would genuinely follow through with any kind of positive, assertive defense of the public schools.
With regard to OneNewark and all the various attempts to destroy Newark’s public school system, the handwriting was already on the wall five or six years ago. If those who currently occupy the union hall were ever going to really fight this insidious, anti-democratic destruction of a public good, they would have done something more about it already.
Aaron Hale you speak truth. How can actuate change when you DO NOT SUPPORT tour union??? New Caucus does not! Leah Owens is no longer a teacher and should have nothing to do with anything comcerning NTU… They (New Caucus) is faction of NTU, which is comprised of teachers. Which she is NOT!
You’re awfully worried about someone who is no longer a teacher in NPS. ijs
You’re right, Aaron. VPs who ran on the NEW Vision slate haven’t been able to accomplish much on the Executive Board. Their ideas and proposals get stonewalled the vast majority of the time and whenever something does come to fruition, it is the NTU as a union that gets the credit. Examples include Fight Back Fridays and yesterday’s press conference. So much for us not supporting the Union we belong to. The first paragraph of NEW Caucus’s vision statement states that we will work hand in hand with the union leadership when possible. Our humility and focus on pushing the current leadership to be more proactive in this fight for public education definitely has gotten in the way of self-promotion.
If you have been present at NPS Advisory Board meetings yourself, you certainly wouldn’t be as bold to say that all we do is hand out our literature. Though we haven’t been recorded every time, there is plenty of video to demonstrate that we speak up, usually in the absence of any union leadership but at times in the presence of John Abeigon and Michael Dixon. We are fully aware that Joe Del Grosso’s health is failing, so we wouldn’t expect him to attend. But that is no excuse for the remaining leadership to remain quiet…until election season. At the press conference’s planning meeting last Friday, it was made clear that none of the teachers being affected by turnaround designation would speak, only John Abeigon, even though invoking personal testimonies would have been a much more effective tactic.
Yes, I came into NPS through TFA. I do not hide this. It does not make me. It’s easy to make insinuations. I am confident you will not produce any evidence that proves I am or will be a snitch. TFA is definitely not claiming me.
Sorry but if you have the majority and in two years you can’t get anything accomplished, how are we to trust you as Leadership. All NEW talks about is social justice all the time. In two years they never created a social justice committee at the NTU. They had the votes. All I ever got were flyers to attend their rallies and fundraisers from them.
How sad the lack of sophistication. Teach and prach can’t see beyond his own paycheck and Leah Owens can’t distance herself far enough from TFA and Cami to wash the stench of infiltrator off of her. Owens sought contracts for her business entity Teachers as Leaders in Newark, aka TaLiN from the Cami administration and would be working for her today if she had received one.
Mr. Aaron Hale (or should I say the mouth piece of the current brain dead, decrepit and mercurial union leadership?)
I have a mortgage and three children! Please do not lecture me about seeing beyond the paycheck. Obviously you and the current Union leadership do not give a hoot about the financial well being of the members! Hence, if the union can’t protect my meager salary and negotiate a good contract… Then why exist at all? On the other hand, your comments and sarcasm is a perfect example of the level of complacency and mercurial characters who are currently at the helm of the Union Leadership.
I stand vindicated when I say that I will campaign hard for the New Caucus team even though I hardly know any of them. WE NEED FRESH AND EMPOWERED LEADERSHIP! We do not need the folks who sit and squabble for scraps “infighting” and allow Cami / Christy /Booker & the scheming double dipping Democratic party machine bosses destroy our schools and profession. Please note that the current triumvirate won the election by 7 votes…! Rest assured, in the upcoming election the vast majority of teachers are going to tip the scale this time! “Sophistication”…. ehhhhhh.
Here are 2 articles that echoes yours.
http://www.blackagendareport.com/big-lies-big-plans-behind-atlanta-cheating-scandal
http://www.damemagazine.com/2015/04/13/dear-white-people-your-kids-are-getting-screwed-too
I’m also outside of NJ-let us know how we can support you.
I would respond to the attacks by Mr. Aaron Hale, but it is just John Abeigon once again trying to spread misinformation. Just go to the facebook page and you will see that “Aaron Hale” was created a couple of weeks ago, his picture is of Tony Hale and Aaron Belz, he was able to talk/lie about the last executive board meeting where we refused to support an action without a long term strategy or plan, and he was the only person to leave a positive review on the NTU page in over a year – “Always attentive to my needs. Spent two months trying to fix a payroll issue on my own. Went to John at NTU, got a correction next pay period.” Pathetic John. As Director of Organization of the NTU you wouldn’t have to worry about NEW Caucus if you actually directed the organization.
As for Mr. Dixon, your comment is neither accurate nor original – which doesn’t seem to stray from your usual path. If we didn’t care about the union, why would I call you to be part of the press conference? I know we are running against you, but those of us organizing the press conference (NTU members who are New Caucus and Non New Caucus) wanted as many people involved as possible. Also, Leah is correct, we did bring Fight Back Fridays to the NTU, but because there was no central organizing by either you, John, or Joe and it turned into a joke. It was only supposed to be for a couple of weeks and then escalate to something else, but because Joe and John didn’t go out into the field, and you were mostly concerned about campaigning for President, nobody from the union hall could tell us how many teachers were out there and where teachers needed support.
I have never written on here before, and don’t want to put our business out there, but I am confident that many will see the need for NEW leadership. Standing outside today with my fellow teachers at East Side gives me hope that we can turn this union around. Our union has taken a lot of hard hits, especially since that contract was passed (which by the way Mr. Dixon and Mr. Hale/Abeigon were both responsible for it while NEW Caucus were outspoken opponents of it), but I am confident we will rebound from this and bring the union into a new period that will fight for all workers and students.
What about the students settlement money from Abbott vs Burke. The state intervention was a heist of 1 billion dollars from Camden , Newark, and Trenton the original litigants in a 6 billion dollar settlement. Before a shovel got in the ground or a building fix the money disappeared under State control and State and Governor appointed School Boards and now in Camden even the Superintendent. The Children of Newark, Trenton, and Camden and sue for the return of the Students Settlement that the school boards filed on behalf of the students for facilities to be safe. What has been denied these cities for 14 years is a reverse Robbin Hood steal from the poor and give to the rich. Sums up Gov. Christie Legacy he lot millions gambling on the stock market but the fund management company made hundreds of millions in commissions.
1. If the district is in fiscal crisis, how are they going to pay for the extended school day at more turnaround or renew schools?
2. How is the district justifying promoting two Anderson administration officials to Deputy Superintendent, while hiring candidates to fill their old posts?
3. According to the district’s self-assessment, how does it rationalize saving money by seeking a waiver to remove more experienced, higher paid teachers, with less experienced, lower paid teachers, if according to the renew contracts, the district will be paying more in stipends and bonuses to develop those less experienced teachers?
4. Why isn’t the district charging charter school operators more money to lease wholly occupied district school buildings?
5. Where is the money coming from to fund school busses for One Newark?
6. Why aren’t charter schools and charter school operators who are leasing district schools or space in district schools paying the district for the utilities they consume while occupying those district owned spaces?
7. How much money was former Assistant Superintendent Tiffany Hardrick paid while she was still officially Assistant Superintendent in Newark, BUT working as Superintendent in Arkansas?
8. Cumulatively, over the course of her tenure as State Superintendent of The Newark Public Schools, how much money has she authorized be paid to consultants?
9. How much in legal fees has the district had to pay to lose all but one of it’s tenure charge cases against teachers?
10. If 18th Avenue School was considered too expensive to repair, but valuable enough to sell, why didn’t Anderson’s administration simply lease it to TEAM/Pink Hula Hoop like it has many other buildings, with the option to renovate at the lessee’s cost?
11. Considering the increasing deficit, why doesn’t Anderson’s administrations’ salaries and the number of positions in her cabinet fluctuate according to the decreasing enrollment, and portfolio of district schools?
12. With the advent of ONE Newark, how much does it cost to run the enrollment center?
13. How much did it cost the district to pull employees away from their regular jobs to proctor the PARCC?
14. How much did it cost the district to pull employees away from their regular jobs to train to administer the PARCC?
15. Considering the district’s budget gap, how many new administrators did the district hire this year and at what fiscal cost?
16. What is the total sum of all the district’s non-affiliated administrator salaries combined?
17. At roughly $3.3 million dollars per school, how does the district explain losing $100 million dollars in the process of creating over 30 renew/turnaround schools that, by the district’s own standards are failing, with nothing to show for it?
18. Considering the district’s AIP program and the district’s fiscal crisis, how much money does Anderson owe the district for one year and a half worth of not showing up to work at school board meetings?
19. If the district is trying to save money, why does it keep hiring the most elite, the most expensive, highly educated, but inexperienced administrators it can find to shape educational policy, but not retain the most elite, and the most talented, and the most experienced teachers who positively influence learning in the classroom?
First and foremost, I am a proud NTU member. I am also an even prouder NEW Caucus member, who was honored by fellow NTU members to be elected to the NTU e-board two years ago. I hope to receive that same honor this election and be re-elected to the NTU e-board.
Mr. Hale, I take personal offense when you wrote, “They (NEW Caucus) don’t even support the Union that they belong to.” Have we not been to the same meetings? I am at every possible NTU meeting and/or organized event that I can attend. I am at almost every School Board meeting, and have spoken at a number of these meetings. I continue to put my neck on the line and speak to all NTU members about attending NTU events and I always introduce myself first as a NTU member. NEW Caucus is made up mostly of NTU members and NEW Caucus members continue to support the NTU and what it should stand for. Are you really saying that NEW Caucus dares to challenge the NTU leadership by wanting to make the NTU stronger and more involved in what is happening on a daily basis to our members, our students, our community, and our city of Newark?
Yes, it is true that the people who ran on the NEW Vision slate won the majority of seats on the NTU e-board. We were excited about having this opportunity to make a difference and make changes in how the NTU leadership operated, but sadly, too quickly, we found out that the previous and now current NTU leadership was not interested in making any changes to the status quo.
We have made some inroads, of which I am proud, but we have also been stonewalled on many of our proposals, by the NTU leadership. To say that we have “not accomplished a darn thing” is false. The very first thing we accomplished was to have regular, open monthly e-board meetings, which by the way were written in the By-Laws, but in previous years were not followed. That in itself is a big accomplishment. Have we accomplished what we wanted, such as having a full-time organizer? No, but that isn’t because we didn’t try. It was because the NTU leadership didn’t agree, therefore, we were stopped.
How many times have I and others heard when we asked why the NTU wasn’t taking action that the NTU would not say anything and when the time came would grieve the issue? Why, would we “wait and see” and not take action immediately?
Mr. Hale wrote “All NEW (Caucus) talks about is social justice all the time. In two years, they never created a social justice committee at the NTU. They had the votes”
Mr. Hale, your statement is misleading because the NTU By-Laws clearly state that ONLY the President of the NTU can form a committee and the President appoints ALL committee members. The President can also dismantle a committee at will.
As an elected NTU e-board member, I requested more than once to be put on a number of committees, and ended up on one that I hadn’t requested and that wasn’t even a committee when I was first elected. Why is this? I believe it is because I am outspoken and one of those NEW Caucus members. I also believe that it was because I have previous political experience, as I was once an elected official in a small New Jersey town, and might have made “waves.”
Yes, NEW Caucus is concerned about Social Justice. Isn’t that what we in America are supposed to stand for? Why is Mr. Hale making it seem like Social Justice is a negative thing to support?
As for Mr. Hale’s statement, “All I ever got were flyers to attend their rallies and fundraisers from them.” I would like to know which fundraisers he is speaking about? As a NEW Caucus member and the current treasurer, I certainly would like to know about any fundraisers we are holding. We could use all of the finance we can get to help promote Social Justice for the NTU employees, students and community members of Newark.
Mr. Hale, for one of the rallies NEW Caucus held last spring, we asked the NTU for their support. After all, any rally that students, NEW Caucus members, and community members have is in support of PUBLIC SCHOOLS, but we were told NO by the NTU leadership, Mr. Abeigon in particular. NEW Caucus even said we would give the “ownership” of this march/rally to the NTU because we felt so strongly in the cause and we aren’t egotistical enough to worry about who gets the name recognition. We’re concerned about the outcome, and still the NTU leadership said NO and did not support the rally.
If the NTU leadership would have worked with NEW Caucus maybe things wouldn’t be where they are in the union today.
As for the personal attacks by Mr. Hale and Mr. Dixon on Leah Owens, this should show the NTU membership something about your characters. True, Ms. Owens came to NPS as a Teach-for-America teacher, unlike many of us that came to NPS the traditional route by attending a teacher’s college, doing student teaching, etc. Unlike many TfA teachers, Ms. Owens stayed after her two-year requirement. Doing this, in my opinion, makes Ms. Owens and all the other people that came through the NPS doors via TfA no longer TfA people, but rather committed teachers that just happened to get through our doors a different way.
Are both Mr. Hale and Mr. Dixon implying that ALL people that arrive and arrived in Newark via TfA are all snitches? Are both Mr. Hale and Mr. Dixon implying that ALL TfA teachers that happen to stay in the district as teachers are less union members than people that arrived in Newark the traditional route?
As for pointing out that Ms. Owens is no longer a teacher, what does that have to do with the original article by Mr. Braun? Yes, Ms. Owens, after five years of teaching decided to leave the teaching profession, but not the people of Newark. Ms. Owens is working as a community organizer in Newark working with fellow teachers. Ms. Owens is using her teaching experience to help other teachers, students and families. I find it appalling that both of you would personally attack someone for no apparent reason other than to try and make yourselves look bigger than you both are. How is attacking Ms. Owens personally constructive and helping the NTU and its cause?
Additionally, I do not understand this personal attack on Ms. Owens as she is not running for a NTU e-board position on the NEW Vision slate.
Since the NTU does not control who can be a member of NEW Caucus it should not matter to either Mr. Hale or Mr. Dixon if NEW Caucus’s members are NTU members and/or community members. Since we are a Social Justice Caucus, we have a number of community members.
As for NEW Caucus being presented with the facts about members wanting to see job actions and the majority of them voted against taking any, when did this happen? First of all, the NTU leadership has refused to speak to NEW Caucus, and in fact has been on numerous occasions disrespectful to Branden Rippey at NTU Board meetings, even wanting to punch him out. The NTU leadership doesn’t even recognize that NEW Caucus is a caucus of the NTU, and yet here you want it to seem like NEW Caucus isn’t working for the union members. You can’t have it both ways.
NEW Caucus does not have the authority to get a personal aide back into the classroom. Only the NTU can do this as the union that represents many of the employees of NPS, so it would make sense that Mr. Abeigon was able to get the aide in your classroom back.
Thank you Teach and Prach for your support of NEW Caucus and NEW Vision. I too think you were unfairly attacked by Mr. Hale. Of course, money is important for all of us. It is why we work in whatever profession we choose. Hopefully, we work in a field that we love and we are compensated fairly for the job we do. Having money also helps the communities that we live and work in because we can support these businesses. The contract that was forced down our throat, and that Mr. Dixon wholeheartedly supports, did not help any of us in our union. I am still in shock that it was passed.
On a side-note: What school do you work for Mr. Hale, as I did a global e-mail search and the name Aaron Hale does not show as an NPS employee?
Please NEVER forget that I am a NTU member first, an elected NTU e-board member, who also happens to be a NEW Caucus member. I want my union to survive. I have personally put the “I” back in the Union by putting myself out on the line. I have put the “U” back in the union by fighting for all of us and by running on the NEW VISION slate.
To all of our colleagues in the district: NEW Caucus is your only chance to help fight the evil powers that are bent on destroying us. If the current and complacent leadership continues we will continue to loose. Please take a moment of your time and speak to your colleagues to vote for the NEW Caucus! I know I will.
As a Newarker, parent, community activist I would like to suggest an IDEA or THOUGHT; when did this all go left and we STOPPED putting Newark Children FIRST? All I hear is one agenda after another. I do agree that great teachers and administrators should be compensated for the genuine hard work, care, skills, and true love/passion for their profession. I do believe as a parent there have been to many bad educators, politicians, and community leaders that have SOLD out our children and community for personal gain, power, ego, advancement, and control.
I visit certain schools and I see how parents are treated at the board but also at the schools like they are less than. I grew up and graduated from a great magnet school in Newark. I had great teachers, schools administrators, and community; who were fully invested in my growth in success together.
We will never truly be at the same roundtable until we unite all the resources, groups, and associations; because we look fragmented and there is not a seamless united approach to meet this challenge or the many barriers.
It saddens me because this divide among us has weaken and made our progress slower.
Time to hit the reset button and create a united movement!
For OUR Voiceless Children!!!
Thanks Bob for keeping up the true factual fight for our community and children.
[…] picket lines’ during non-school day hours to explain their concerns to the public.” Braun reports that Mayor Ras Baraka supports the teachers’ action. Dr. Lauren Wells, Baraka’s chief school […]