Laborfest: Defend Public Education-Conference

Defend Public Education, Charters: Connecting the Dots and Privatization - Conference
This conference will look at th history of the charter movement, how it has taken over the regulation of our education system, and how it is re-segregating education in California and nationally.
Public education in California is facing destruction in every direction. Supporters of charters and privatization over the last 30 years have seized control of the California Board of Education and also the Commission on Teacher Credentials (CTC). The deregulation of education rules in California allows a massive expansion of privately run charter schools in shopping malls and highly toxic industrial sites, even when local communities and school boards oppose their establishment.
Proposition 39, which passed in California, is now diverting hundreds of millions of dollars to building new charter schools with non-union labor and replacing unionized teachers with TFA and non-certified teachers. They are also allowing charters to grab up rooms and spaces at public schools and even setting up charters inside high schools and other public schools, creating chaos. Some charters in California are now run by Christian and Moslem sects who demand that students pray to play and indoctrinate students in their religious ideology with public funds.
Many of these charter schools have been set up with support from the Gates Foundation, the Wal-Mart Family through their Walton Foundation, the Broad Foundation, The Fisher Family KIPP Foundation, and Mark Zuckerberg Facebook Foundation.
They are driven by more testing through companies like Pearson and spend tens of millions on more computers rather than teachers. They are also attacking the teacher pension Cal-STRS by spiking the pension system and preventing new teachers from joining this state public pension system.
Sponsored by: Fairmede Hilltop Neighborhood Council, United Public Workers For Action, Voices Against Privatizing Public Education, Defend Public Education
See also:
http://www.upwa.info/
http://www.ci.richmond.ca.us/2274/Fairmede-Hilltop-Neighborhood-Council
http://www.laborfest.net/2016/2016schedule.htm