Detroit, BAMN, mayoral control and the fight against the privatization of education

Readers:

‘By Any Means Necessary’  (www.bamn.com) is no doubt the most vibrant and militant mobilization of teacher, youth and community in the United States.

Today, Sunday the 13th, De’Von Burt, the courageous high school student who I have interviewed and written about for Daily Censored was on Aljazeera English!  De’Von was interviewed by Aljazeera in regards to the wholesale closure of public schools in Detroit and the killing fields of Robert Bobb, the Financial Manager and Eli Broad harlot that is ridiing roughshod over public education in an effort to privatize the sytem.  You will not find interviews and coverage like this on corporate media in the US.  As Solomon Comissiong stated (a writer for Daily Censored), the corporate media has everyone on novacaine.

The stakes are high in Detroit and BAMN needs your support, both financial and otherwise to continue their fight for our nation’s children.

At stake now is the ‘unitary executive’ that Mayor of Detroit David Bing is selling to Detroit citizens.  He wants ‘mayoral control’,  full control over all public services and public issues in the city of Detroit and he has the backing of both the Governor and her constituencies: the corporations.

This was just sent by BAMN.  Please, if there is any way you might help by making a donation to BAMN or supporting their efforts in any way, call the numbers listed below.  We must not allow the privatizers to win the battle in Detroit and we need all the help we can get for if they win in Detroit, the geograpshical map is wide open for the wholesale privatization of our nation’s schools!

                                                     For Immediate     

                                                          Release                                                                                                  

MAINTAIN AN ELECTED SCHOOL BOARD

FOR DETROIT PUBLIC SCHOOLS

NO TO MAYORAL CONTROL

Press Conference

Monday, June 14, 2010 – 4:00pm

Offices of the Detroit Board of Education

New Center One

Monday, June 14^th at 4pm in the offices of the Detroit Board of Education at New Center One there will be a press conference announcing a campaign to defeat efforts to abolish the right of Detroit voters to democratically elect their own school board and instead place the Detroit Public Schools under mayoral control.

The press conference is jointly sponsored by BAMN (The Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary), AFSCME Local 207, Defend Public Education/Save our Students (a caucus of the Detroit Federation of Teachers) and the Detroit Board of Education.

“We have obtained evidence (which will be made available at the press conference) that there is a cabal of foundations advocating the privatization of education that have plotted to marginalize and eventually abolish the duly elected School Board since last fall. This self-appointed shadow governance group that is standing behind Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb has the arrogance to think that they know better than the people of Detroit what is best for Detroit’s children. The Detroit electorate voted only a few years ago, by a margin of two to one, against mayoral control. These corporate-backed foundations from outside Detroit are demonstrating their disdain for the Detroit citizenry,” said Shanta Driver, National Chairperson of BAMN and one of the attorneys for the Board.

“The membership of the Detroit Federation of Teachers voted last week 200 to 5 against mayoral control over DPS. Our members understand that mayoral control would be used to ram through controversial and unpopular policies, such as the further closure of public schools and the expansion of charters. An elected board is the most democratic and accountable form of school governance. Wealthy, white suburban districts would never give up their right to determine the educational policies of their schools.. Poor black and Latino communities feel no differently,” said Steve Conn, DFT building representative at Cass Technical High School.

“Paid circulators who have been soliciting signatures to get the referendum for mayoral control on the November ballot have been heard telling potential signers that the petition would “stop school closings” or “bring more schools to Detroit.” This is the same type of voter fraud that was used by Ward Connerly to place Proposal 2, the referendum abolishing affirmative in Michigan, on the ballot. They are using these deceptive methods because they know that if they tell the truth, very few people will sign because most people do not want to give Mayor Bing control over the schools,” said John Riehl, President of AFSCME Local 207.

For more information, contact Joyce Schon 313-434-7075 or Donna Stern 313-468-3398.