Stop Education Cuts in Vallejo and Benicia

The Community-Labor Alliance is organizing a community wide forum for teachers, parents, students and workers to discuss the funding crises in the Vallejo and Benicia School Districts and to hear from Sutter Solano Healthcare workers on Sutter’s unfair labor practices. This will be the first public forum organized by and for parents and teachers and importantly will unite parents ACROSS districts.

Ben Visnick is President of the Oakland Education Association (OEA) and has been a key organizer against the cuts and school closures in the Oakland Unified School District. Currently, the OEA is organizing a broad coalition including teachers, parents, staff, inter-faith organizations and a variety of labor unions including the ILWU, SEIU and UFCW in order to stop the de-funding of Oakland’s schools. The State Administrator for Oakland has recently suggested a “public/charter” hybrid model district wide. Such privatization efforts have proven disastrous in communities throughout the country and simply create a two-tiered education system that fosters social fragmentation rather than common experience. Marketing, rather than educational improvement becomes a chief concern and focus of resources.