IN MY MAILBOX

We have a great department chair. Here's what she sent us this morning:

Hello EPSR Faculty,

I am forwarding the email below and attached flyer for your information.

Thank you.

Dr. Proweller

Amira Proweller, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Chair
Department of Educational Policy Studies and Research School of Education DePaul University

March 29, 2011

Dear Friend of Higher Education,

I am writing to ask you to join in an effort to stop the attacks on public education and on our universities' education programs.

I invite you and your colleagues and students to join Save Our Schools March & National Call to Action. This national grassroots organization began as an effort by classroom teachers to stand together against the destructive, corporate-driven, free-market reforms that are being foisted on our K-12 public schools. Three of the founding members of our organization are professors of education in Maryland, Connecticut, and New Mexico. Many of our new members are professors of education, as well as college students majoring in education.

Although our mission began over two years ago as an effort to prevent the reauthorization of the worst aspects of No Child Left Behind, we believe it is time for all of us with a professional commitment to education to speak with one voice.

I am writing to ask you, as the chairperson of your department, to share my letter with your faculty and students. Please visit our website at www.saveourschoolsmarch.org , where you will find our list of endorsers and our guiding principles. Please post the attached flyer on your faculty and student bulletin boards.

We invite your faculty members and students to sign up through our webpage and join with us to defend public education and our profession. We invite all of you to join us in Washington, D.C. this summer for Four Days of Action, July 28 -31, which includes our march on July 30. If either your department or your individual faculty members or any student associations wish to endorse us, we will be adding a new endorsement page on our website where we will list endorsements related only to higher education. Endorsements can be e-mailed to us through the e-mail link on our website.

Only by standing together can we awaken the public and our elected officials to the dangerous movement to privatize large sectors of public education and to demoralize and weaken our profession. Our schools are at risk, the public sector is at risk, and democracy is at risk. Please stand with us.

Sincerely,

Diane Ravitch

The Information Coordinator for Illinois is Helen Hoffman
saveschoolsil@gmail.com
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Save Our Schools March and National Call to Action