SOS Press Release: A Call to Action

Save Our Schools: A National Call to Action

www.saveourschoolsmarch.org

  for immediate release

SAVE OUR SCHOOLS ANNOUNCES KEYNOTE SPEAKERS, PANEL LEADERS

FOR AUGUST 3 -5 WASHINGTON, DC PEOPLES EDUCATION CONVENTION 

Organizers of the upcoming Save Our Schools (SOS) “Peoples Education Convention” today unveiled the list of featured speakers for their August 3 – 5, 2012 event at the Marriott Wardman Park hotel in  Washington, D.C. event. Keynoters include author Jonathan Kozol,  MacArthur “genius” award winner Deborah Meier, civil rights attorneys Shanta Driver and Rose Sanders, and early childhood expert Nancy Carlsson-Paige.  

Jonathan Kozol is a oft-honored author and lecturer whose best-selling books such as Death at an Early Age and The Shame of the Nation vividly describe the country’s educational challenges. Kozol will speak on the topic “Fire In The Ashes: Victims and Survivors, Kids and Teachers in Public Schools Under Siege — How Do We Fight Back?” 

Deborah Meier is a senior scholar at New York University’s Steinhardt School. She spent 45 years working in K-12th grade public schools in East Harlem and Roxbury including leadership of several highly successful urban schools. She is also a well-known blogger writing in tandem with Diane Ravitch. 

A graduate of Harvard University, Shanta Driver is the National Director of United for Equality and Affirmative Action, which organized the student intervention for Grutter v. Bollinger, the landmark affirmative action case. Ms. Driver is also the National Coordinator of the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action and Integration, and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary. 

Rose Sanders, also known as Ora Rose Touré, is a Harvard-educated litigator who has worked on some of the nation’s highest-profile civil rights cases. She was the first African-American female judge in Alabama and part of the winning legal team in Pigford v Veneman that led to the payment of a billion dollars in damages to black farmers by the U.S. Agriculture Department. 

Nancy Carlsson-Paige is a professor of early childhood education at Lesley University where she has taught teachers for more than 30 years. She has written five books and many articles on violence, conflict resolution, and peaceable classrooms and schools. Her most recent book is Taking Back Childhood. Her son, Matt Damon, spoke at the 2011 SOS March and Rally. 

Among the many well-known workshop leaders also scheduled to appear at the Save Our Schools Convention are Uniting4Kids Executive Director Angela Engel, FairTest Executive Director Monty Neill, student lobbyist Nikhil Goyal, Parents Across America leader Karran Harper Royal, and  Michael Klonsky, DePaul University faculty member and Director of the Small Schools Workshop. 

In addition to speakers and workshops, the event will develop strategies on key education issues including testing, privatization, and school funding. SOS participants will also refine platform planks for the “People’s Principles for Public Education,” which will be presented to both national political parties before their upcoming conventions. 

The program begins at 2:15pm on Friday, August 3 and runs through 12:30pm on Sunday, August 5. 

More details about the SOS Convention are online at: www.saveourschoolsmarch.org

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