Good morning. This week marks the one-year anniversary of Betsy DeVos’ confirmation as the Secretary of Education. The DeVos-Trump agenda has already caused great harm to our public schools and continues to roll back important investments as well as civil rights and educational justice gains for our students.
Our national affiliate American Federation of Teachers (AFT) has created a DeVos Report Card so that she can get evaluated and receive feedback. Give Betsy a grade.
In support of our public schools, next week we will be participating in the #WeLoveOurSchools week of action, organized by the Massachusetts Education Justice Alliance. There are many ways to participate via the BTU:
- Attend the BPS School Committee Budget Hearings to show our support for state and federal funding of our schools. There will be one tomorrow, February 7 (the one year anniversary of the DeVos confirmation) at the Bolling Building, and there will be a second on February 13 at East Boston High School, both at 6 PM.
Fill out a BTU Valentine for the Boston’s School Committee about your hopes for BPS schools and why you love them! Cards will be available at the BTU, at the February 7 meeting, and at the Winter Conference on February 10. They’ll be delivered to the School Committee on February 13.- Attend the BTU Winter Conference this Saturday! It’s not too late to register! The keynote speaker is Jack Schneider, author of Beyond Test Scores: A Better Way to Measure School Quality.
- Wear Red for Public Ed on Valentine’s Day! We will be taking a group picture at our membership meeting that day. Don’t forget we *do* have childcare at our membership meetings beginning at 4:30 PM. Sign up here.
Please contact Jonathan at jrodrigues@btu.org to learn more about how to get involved in our statewide #WeLoveOurSchools / Fund Our Schools campaign. You can also follow and share actions using social media with the hashtag #WeLoveOurSchools.
And, as Black History Month continues and the Black Lives Matter at Schools Actions take place this week, please be sure to check out all of our resources at btu.org/blackhistory.
Have a great week!