Defend Education
From SP Boston
[edit] National Day of Action to Defend Education
- 22 December 2009
- Socialist Party USA
The Socialist Party USA (SP-USA) endorses the call for a National Day of Action to Defend Education to be held on March 4th, 2010. SP-USA locals through out the country will participate in organizing political actions in defense of education. The SP-USA endorsement is part of a national call made by student groups responsible for recent campus occupations and student protests in California and New York City.
The call for protest is a response to recent actions by State and Local governments to reduce education budgets as a way to fill in budget gaps. At least 26 states are implementing cuts to K-12 education programs, including Illinois whose cuts will make more than 10,000 children ineligible for early childhood education and Massachusetts, which carried out deep cuts on a number of early care programs. Cuts in other states will result in tuition increases, school closings, privatization, the elimination of after-school programs, and general restrictions on access to higher education.
The SP-USA opposes all cuts to education. We believe that access to free, high quality, public education at all stages of life is a fundamental human right. As such, we fully support the call for a national day of action in order to express our opposition to the education cutbacks taking place throughout the nation. "As Socialists", said Billy Wharton, Co-chair of the Socialist Party USA, "we see education as a human right. On March 4th we'll raise our voices in protest to defend this right."
The national call released by the organizers states, "As people throughout the country struggle under the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, public education from pre-K to higher and adult education is threatened by budget cuts, layoffs, privatization, tuition and fee increases, and other attacks. Budget cuts degrade the quality of public education by decreasing student services and increasing class size, while tuition hikes and layoffs force the cost of the recession onto students and teachers and off of the financial institutions that caused the recession in the first place. All of the attacks... have hit working people and people of color the hardest." The SP-USA supports this call and will play a role in organizing with student and other groups to make the day a success.
For more information and interviews please contact:
- Kristin Schall Member, National Committee, SP-USA
- kristinspnyc@gmail.com 928-308-7563
The Socialist Party USA is a democratic socialist organization that believes that the vast wealth of society should be used for the good of all society.