(excerpt from) NY Times
As Parents Protest, Chancellor and Panel Leave
by Karen Zraick
Published: August 16, 2010
Angry parents protested a falloff in test scores at a meeting of a citywide education panel on Monday night, prompting its members and the schools chancellor to walk out.
Forty-five minutes into the hearing, as a crowd of about 100 people jeered and chanted slogans, the chancellor, Joel I. Klein, and the members of the Panel for Educational Policy left the stage. They did not return, choosing to reschedule the meeting, as parents marched the aisles of the auditorium at Murry Bergtraum High School in Lower Manhattan and took turns expressing their outrage over a bullhorn.
“This is a call to all those in charge at the Department of Education,” shouted Esperanza Vazquez of Morrisania. “Do your work for our children.” …
Kimberly writes: I have been to a lot of public hearings where many experts and politicians were paraded out, to stall the public comment until the end of a long evening. Glad that one group got the energy together to thwart that outcome. Funny that the educational bureaucrats tried to “punish them” by shutting down the meeting, instead of compromising or opening up the microphone. Sounds to me like the next meeting will be bigger. Let’s watch for it…
Filed under: activism, children, Education, grassroots democracy, local, News, politics, progressive politics, social & economic justice Tagged: | Esperanza Vazquez, Joel Klein, Murry Bergtraum HS, New York City Schools, NYC, NYC Department of Education, NYC School Chancellor, Panel for Educational Policy, public hearings
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