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GLORIA SLAUGHTER taught in the public school systems of Alabama and Georgia for 32 years. She is chair of her local retired teachers organization and past president of the local county education association. Gloria says, "I dream of the day -- and we must campaign for it -- when public education is fully funded by the government to offer every child in America an equal, quality education. Some schools have always been better because these areas are wealthier and people pay higher property taxes. This system of discrepancy must be done away with. Every child must not only master Reading, Writing, Math and other curriculum, but be given the opportunity to lead a productive, creative life. Education must encompass an appreciation of the Arts and an appreciation of many cultures." |
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STEVE MILLER has taught science for more than a decade in an urban high school and he is active in the California Teachers Association.He is a leader in the fight to restructure education so that kids can develop the skills necessary for the 21st century. Steve says, "This is a fight for the future of this country. The money is there. Our children are worth it. Those of us who work in public education face new challenges.One thing is for sure, we ignore all this at our own peril." |
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WILLIAM H. WATKINS, PH.D., is a major scholar and theoretician in the field of education. He is author of, "The White Architects of Black Education: Ideology and Power in America, 1865-1954." He was born in Harlem and grew up in South Central Los Angeles. He brings a unique perspective to the world of education with his years fighting for social justice coupled with his trailblazing research, writing and critique of U.S. education. He challenges long standing beliefs as he discusses the historical underpinnings of contemporary education. In his books, he outlines the major historical movements of black curriculum in the U.S. over the past three hundred years. He is lead editor of "Race and Education: The Roles of History and Society in Educating African American Students" and other books and articles. He is an Associate Professor at the University of Illinois, Chicago, teaching in the Department of Education. |
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TOM HIRSCHL Tom Hirschl is a sociologist on the faculty of Cornell University who writes and speaks about how new technology is creating progressively higher levels of structural unemployment in capitalist society. He co-edited"Cutting Edge: Technology, Information Capitalism and SocialRevolution,"(Verso, 1997). He has won numerous awards and has written on poverty in rural areas, youth, food production and distribution in the era of smart technology. |
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STEVE TEIXIERA is a leader of the struggle to save economic opportunity programs in California colleges, and for a nationwide movement for free, equal education. His program at California State University helps 450 inner-city university students overcome the gap between their skills and the skills other students were provided. In the 1960's he helped fight to create EOP, ethnic studies, and set up the first learning skills center at Cal State L.A. He is active in higher education unions and professional associations, and the Labor Party's Campaign for Free Higher Education. Steve says, "Education is the last public service Americans believe they have an absolute right to, but the elite are attacking schools at all levels. In higher education, a new fight is brewing -- the 60's and 70's took on racial segregation, opening colleges to thousands excluded for their color. The elite fought back with corporate tax cuts aimed at letting working class neighborhood schools decline, so now they can say we aren't skilled enough to go to college. Minorities are being excluded again, alongside poor whites whose school systems also failed them. While we work to raise skills, we have to re-build a nationwide movement for free, equal education." |
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ADOLPH REED, JR., is an author and a professor of political science. He has earned a national reputation for his controversial evaluations of American politics. His newest book, Class Notes, is a collection of essays, drawn from his columns in The Progressive and The Village Voice, that examine the decline of the American left. It champions a revival of class-based political interpretation and action. |
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LUIS RODRIGUEZ is one
of the leading Latino writers in the country with eight published books.
he is best known for his internationally acclaimed memoir of gang life,
"Always running: La Via Loca, Gang Days in L.A.." The American
Library Association called the book one of the ten most censored books in
1999. Yet for all the controversy, the book has gained the respect of youth
in the highschools and colleges, teachers, and the literary community. Luis
says,"What we need is art, creativity, song, story, organization,
and compelling words to spark the fire of imagination and of meaningful
and conscious struggle as seeds of an equitable and abundant world for all."
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NELSON PEERY is the award-winning author of Black Fire: The Making of an American Revolutionary, The Future is Up to Us, co-author of Moving Onward From Racial Division to Class Unity, as well as many other writings. He has been a revolutionary for over sixty years. When speaking about the crisis in public education, he says, "The great ongoing revolution in the economy is demanding and forcing revolution in all sectors of society. Education is no exception. It is one of the main battlefronts in the struggle of the people to gain control of our country and run it in their interests, instead of the interests of a handful of billionaires." |
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TODD ALAN PRICE is a professor of education at National-Louis University. For several years he has researched the implications of educational reform in the state of Ohio. He is completing a video documentary on the No Child Left Behind Act, focusing on Hamilton, Ohio where the act was signed into law, and criss-crossing the state to report on the struggle to save public education. Dr. Price claims that corporations are waging a sustained and devastating war on public education. Ohio is the site for a major takeover of the educational system through vouchers, charter schools, and an abusive testing regime which hurts rather than helps students to learn and teachers to teach. He has published work on corporate intrusion into public education. He is author of "Wiring the World: Ameritech's Monopoly on the Virtual Classroom," He was a contributor to the chapter, "The Spoils of Industry" in the book, "The Flickering Mind: The False Promise of Technology in the Classroom and How Learning Can Be Saved." He was a contributing editor to "Campus Inc., Corporate Power in the Ivory Tower" with an article "Classrooms without Walls."
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