by Christine Maguire (Feb. 7, 2003; p.1 lead story)

The education of our children affects the quality of life in all of our community," said Michele Brooks, a parent and Boston Parents Organizing Network member at a packed January meeting in Roxbury. As devastating budget cuts hit our communities and bilingual education is being dismantled, parents, teachers, and other community activists are gathering at networking sessions to fight for public education. In Boston, 44% of the Class of 2003 failed the MCAS retest; of these, an estimated 90% are African-American or Latino. Yet school budgets, already frozen in 2003, have been cut 10% for 2004, and little or no assistance will be available to bilingual students in their primary language.

A diverse group of over 100 parents, teachers, and public education supporters gathered at a networking session at the AME Church in Roxbury on January 28. Parent members of the Boston Parent Organizing Network, who sponsored the session, reported results of their survey of the effect of the cuts on 29 schools. Among other cuts, they found that there would be a reduction of an average of 7 full-time teaching positions per school with additional cuts of guidance counselors, bus monitors, and other support staff. Individual schools were also cutting programs ranging from field trips to computers to substitute resources.

In the midst of all of the budget cuts and attacks upon our communities, many of us are feeling overwhelmed and wondering what we can do. But many folks are standing up for our communities in spite of discouragement. Participants at this session broke into smaller groups to brainstorm goals and strategies. The general agreement was that the group's position would be a stand of "No more cuts." Participants also agreed that it was important to find allies, such as other parent groups statewide, business and cultural groups, and other groups fighting human service cuts. "We don't want to be divided against each other; families need housing and health care as well as education", said one parent. Strategies suggested included speaking out at School Committee, City Council, and State budget hearings, public demonstrations, and petitions. Timelines were discussed; over March and April, the Committee of Ways and Means will begin debating the State budget and a key legislator will be Thomas Finneran. Together with Save our Schools, a statewide coalition, BPON will be having meetings on Feb 4 and 10 to plan next steps. In the meantime, parents and supporters can take some suggested actions: submitting letters to the above groups and the Mayor, Governor, and Editors of newspapers and spreading word about the cuts. It is important to be specific about cuts in your individual school. Parent Lauren Thompson suggested some other good ideas: "The parents of the Trotter School distributed a petition to parents with a tear-off portion they can send back to you. We got a very good response to this. Teachers can also have students do letter writing in class."

At a press conference on January 27, education supporters such as Ms. Thompson, City Councilor Chuck Turner, City Councilor Charles Yancey, and Nadia Chamblin of the Center for Collaborative Education and Save Our Schools spoke out against the cuts. "The president of the United States in his campaign said that he would leave no child behind....The president will not live up to his commitment and there's every indication that our governor is going in the same direction," said Councilor Yancey. "We're going to spend billions upon billions of dollars destroying families in the Middle East and for what? Those dollars should be directed at helping families in the United States."

Bilingual Education Changes

At another meeting on January 25 at the First Church of Roxbury, some of the same participants attended a meeting of over 50 parents and teachers to learned about the planned changes for children who are learning English. As Families Fighting for Public Education explained, the "Unz initiative", which was passed last year, will completely abolish bilingual education for all limited English proficient children in Kindergarten through fourth grade. Students older than ten may apply for a waiver from the English-only program on a limited basis. Beyond that it mandates English-only instruction for all public school children with few exceptions.

Bilingual education, contrary the myths created by its opponents, has been shown to work as a method of helping students to learn academic subjects while acquiring English. Most educators agree that literacy in a native language is one of the best foundations for literacy in English. It is not a large expense, because teachers would be needed anyway for the bilingual students, and many bilingual teachers are at a lower pay rate due to less seniority. Actually, the administrative work and the training of teachers to teach in an English "immersion" setting would be additional expenses at a time of school budget cuts.

Meeting participants divided into groups of Spanish, Portuguese, Cape Verdean, and English-speakers to ask questions and discuss strategies for helping bilingual children. They made plans to go back to their schools and inform other parents about the changes, with help from the meeting's organizers if needed. The next step is a citywide referendum of bilingual families in order to find out from the people who are most affected (many of whom could not vote) how they really feel about bilingual education. After that, bilingual education supporters will use various strategies, such as negotiating with school districts, home rule petitions and lobbying of legislators to amend or overturn the Unz initiative.

For more information or to find out what you can do, contact one of these organizations:
Families of Boston Fighting for Public Education: Myriam Ortiz-(617) 524-8303 x 305 or Lucia Santana-(617) 524-3541 x 306
BPON: c/o Institute for Responsive Education, 21 Lake Hall, Northeastern University, Boston MA 02115; Phone-(617) 373-2595. Offers training, translation equipment. www.bpon.org.
Save our Students, Save our Schools: Nadia Chamblin, (617) 421-0134

© 2003 Dorchester Community News