PLATFORM : Striking Parents

We parents may feel politically impotent regarding the schools, but we aren’t. Public schools are funded by the number of days our children show up. If your kid is absent, the school loses tax money.

Wherever American parents are disgruntled, wherever we come to the conclusion that education is not happening at our local school, that schools are not serving the needs of our children, not teaching our values, and yes, not listening to us, we need to band together and strike.

If half the parents stopped sending their children to a particular school, even for a week, it would cost the school a lot of money--and that gets administrators’ attention.

Let’s demand education, not excuses: smaller class sizes; art, music and cultural-enrichment programs; opportunities for children to work individually at their own pace. Funds need to go directly to classrooms, not to administration. And parents should be consulted about what schools teach. If we want an Afrocentric curriculum, it should be taught. I don’t care what teachers and theorists suggest. They’ve had their chance to improve schools. They’ve failed and we parents are the last line of defense our children have.