Join us for the Brooklyn filming of Defending Public Education in the Era of Privatization
We need you. Your physical presence. You.
After nearly a year of brainstorming and planning, we’re ready.
The Network for Public Education is collaborating with Shoot4Education to make a series of short films to articulate the issues our schools face and to imagine what we want for public education. We’ve never before had the opportunity to bust “out of the bubble” to speak to the whole country, and we’re going for it. To do that, we’ve convened an AMAZING group of speakers, from points north, south, east, and west. They are converging on Brooklyn on Sunday April 30th and they need someone to speak to.
You.
The success of this endeavor depends on an attentive, committed, engaged, and activated audience. The audience is essentially another “character” in the films and we need it to reflect who we are in all our diversity because these issues affect all of us: urban, rural, and suburban; people of color and whites; teachers, parents, and students; those who are comfortable and those who are struggling.
Please come and be yourself. Lend your image and enthusiasm to the cause.
Sign up details, including speaker names and topics are below.
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You can sign up for one, two, or three sessions—but if you sign up, please think of it as a commitment and show up. Too small an audience will lessen the impact of what we are trying to do. We also ask that you be present for the duration of the session(s) you sign up for, as we will need to keep the doors closed while filming is in progress.
MORNING SESSION (9:15-12:45)
Linda Lyon
Privatization: Be Careful What You Wish For
Linda Lyon, a retired Air Force colonel, is president-elect of the Arizona School Boards Association and serves on the board of Support Our Schools AZ. She blogs about education at RestoreReason.com.
Jesse Hagopian
The Destruction of the Teaching Profession
Jesse Hagopian is a Seattle-based high school teacher, speaker, and activist. He edits the journal Rethinking Schools and also edited the book More Than a Score: The New Uprising Against High-Stakes Testing.
John Kuhn
A New Paradigm for “Accountability”
John Kuhn is the superintendent of the Perrin-Whitt School District in Texas and author of the book Test and Punish: How the Texas Education Model Gave America Accountability without Equity.
To reserve a spot to attend the morning session, click here.
AFTERNOON SESSION (1:00-4:30)
Johanna Garcia
False Promises: Equity and High-Stakes Testing
Johanna Garcia served as chief of staff to New York City Council Education Committee Chair Robert Jackson, the co-founder of New York’s Campaign for Fiscal Equity. A committed parent activist, Garcia advocates for families in her Upper Manhattan district, many of whom are immigrants living in poverty.
Jitu Brown
How School Closures Destroy Community
Jitu Brown is the national director for the civil rights organization Journey for Justice (J4J) Alliance. In 2015, he garnered international attention for successfully leading a 34-day hunger strike that reversed the closure of Chicago’s Dyett High School.
Diane Ravitch
Betsy Devos, Charters, and The Trump Agenda
Historian of education Diane Ravitch is President of the Board of Directors of the Network for Public Education, an organization that she co-founded. Ravitch’s influential blog and best-selling books have made her a much sought after speaker and commentator on public education policy.
To reserve a spot to attend the afternoon session, click here.
Evening Session (4:30-6:50)
Jeanette Deutermann
A Parent’s Perspective: Testing as a Tool of Ed “Reform” and a Call to Action
Jeanette Deutermann is a founding member of both Long Island Opt Out and New York State Allies for Public Education, grassroots organizations credited with spearheading the nation’s largest and most vigorous testing resistance movement.
Kymberley Walcott
A Student’s Perspective: How Ed “Reform” Affects Students on the Ground
Kymberley Walcott, currently an undergraduate student at City University of New York’s Hunter College, attended Jamaica High School in Queens when that 122-year-old institution underwent a controversial closure by the NYC Department of Education.
To reserve a spot to attend the evening session, click here.
LOCATION
The shoot will take place in the Gowanus section of Brooklyn in a warehouse where we are having a set constructed. Gowanus is adjacent to the better known and amenity-filled Park Slope and Carroll Gardens. Gowanus itself is industrial, a mixture of factories, artist spaces, and, yes, on the block where we’ll be shooting, there’s a less-than-pretty recycling facility. The neighborhood also has some of the best pie in the city, a few blocks from the shoot on the corner of 8th St. & 3rd Avenue.
We hope to see in Brooklyn on the 30th!
Thanks for all you do,
Carol Burris
Network for Public Education, Executive Director