Teachers union president protests injustice on Eric Garner case

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http://peoplesworld.org/teachers-union-president-protests-injustice-on-eric-garner-case/

I haven't had much time to write lately, work has me slammed, Check it out if you have time.

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Brown's high school, Normandy High School, has been central in the turmoil caused by disaccreditation triggered by low-test cores in the local school district, primarily made up of African American students. Students from Normandy were allowed by Missouri state law to transfer to outlying public schools in more affluent suburban school districts, provided that their district of origin paid full tuition and transportation costs for students to attend schools outside their district.

This quickly forced the district into a state of near insolvency, as the bill for tuition ran up to $10.5 million dollars in funding the transfers, about 25 percent of the student population elected to leave to outlying schools. Teacher layoffs ensued in an effort to offset the tuition bill accrued by the district, further destabilizing the lives of remaining students in Normandy.

Parents in the primarily white and affluent Francis Howell district, which absorbed the transfer students, protested the transfers, saying "they feared that students from troubled neighborhoods would bring drugs and violence. They worried about the potential for overcrowded classrooms and lowered academic averages. A few suggested that metal detectors be erected and that drug sniffing dogs and armed guards be deployed to keep Normandy students under control," as reported by MSNBC last year.

Normandy High School's school district has the second highest rate of poverty in the state.

[vlakitti]

1. Nice to see a Teacher's Union speaking out

Fine article from the People's World.

I particularly liked this passage:

"...The union's position is aligned with its stance that educational justice is not separate from social and economic justice, and that more needs to be done to bring hope to communities in distress, in contrast with the militarized police crackdowns, draconian censure of underfunded and underperforming public schools and other punitive distribution of community resources to public institutions."

Thanks for finding and posting.