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As many of you know, public schools have been under tremendous stress
since the 2007 financial meltdown. Budgets have been slashed, hundreds
of thousands of teachers laid off, and the low-income populations
served by public schools are experiencing economic hardship we can
hardly imagine in our privileged school environment. Many of you may not know that public schools serve 98% of the school
age population, while independent schools serve the other 2%. NAIS
schools serve about 1%. Currently many politicians and pundits are blaming public schools and
public school teachers for failing to raise test scores. Public school teachers are feeling very discouraged in this climate.
To show support for public schools there is a movement to wear
something red this Tuesday.
https://sites.google.com/site/sosmtm/wear-red-for-public-ed/why-red A group of independent school educators is working to let our public
school colleagues know we support them by sharing group pictures of
those teachers at our schools who wear red on Tuesday. If you plan on
wearing red tomorrow let me know and I'll work on arranging a time for
a group picture. I've created a discussion on ISENET
(http://isenet.ning.com/forum/topics/showing-support-for-public) where
we can share pictures.
Fred
PS Wouldn't it send a great message to see the NAIS staff decked out
in red tomorrow! :-)