CommentsCALL TO ACTION--Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academy Charter School (photo) were recently exposed for having a “Got to Go” list of students, which singles out the children they would like to see leave through suspensions, counseling-out, or by not sending annual re-enrollment forms.
Charter schools receive taxpayer dollars under the premise that they will provide an education for all children. When charter schools accept the money but weed out, suspend or discourage students from attending their school using “zero tolerance” disciplinary codes, they hurt children, their families and the community — while perpetuating the school-to-prison pipeline.
This is why we’re glad to support Fatima Geidi, a mother of a Success Academy Charter School student, who has started a petition to Tell the U.S. Department of Education to Stop Funding the Kindergarten to Prison Pipeline.
Moskowitz’s aggressive suspension policies are part of a national trend of criminalizing black and brown youth, and run counter to a national movement that is fighting back in our schools, in our streets and with the police. While Eva Moskowitz touts the mantra of serving mostly black and Latino students, the cost of education should not be punitive discipline that serves as a precursor to prison.
While Eva Moskowitz benefits directly from hedge fund billionaires, the federal government also supports her efforts, awarding her charter network $13.4 million of the $335 million national charter school budget just this year. We should not support schools that are routinely suspending kindergarteners and using a “Got to Go” list to push students out of school.
ACTION INFO: Please join us in supporting Fatima to fight back against the injustices done against her son, and the injustice of the national government funding Success Academy and the school-to-prison pipeline. Sign the petition here and ask Education Secretary Arne Duncan to conduct a civil rights investigation into these schools’ practices and withhold any further federal funding until these practices are removed!
(Donald Cohen is the founder and executive director of In the Public Interest, a national resource and policy center focusing on privatization and responsible contracting. This call to action piece was posted earlier at Capital and Main.)
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 13 Issue 90
Pub: Nov 6, 2015
