Funding Request for May 8

(please respond and share this e-mail)

Education Not Incarceration
A coalition of teachers, students, parents and concerned community members
C/o Critical Resistance
1904 Franklin Street, Suite 504
Oakland, CA 94612
(510)444-0484
ed_not_inc [at] earthlink.net


Dear Friend,

I am writing to you as a founding member of the East Bay Educators Justice Network with an urgent request for funding help. Our newly forming group is working for justice for students in the East Bay and to provide resources to our students so that they can work for local and global justice themselves. We are playing an important role in organizing the May 8 Education not Incarceration Rally in Sacramento (http://www.may8.org).

While the war on the people of Iraq continues in more quiet ways, the war on the youth of the United States, particularly poor youth of color, is intensifying. 30,000 teachers in California have received layoff notices, while California's prison budget is continuing to grow. Youth of color in California are 6.2 times more likely to be charged with crimes than white youth, and schools that are at least 90% youth of color are 14 times more likely to have a majority poor students than schools that are at least 90% white. One of every three African-American males between the ages of 20 and 29 is in jail, prison, or on probation or parole.

On May 8, 2003, students, educators, parents and community members, with your help, will travel to Sacramento to pressure state legislatures to find more funding resources for education and less resources for incarceration. This rally will also play an important role in building a movement of youth, educators, parents and community members who are committed and organizing to protect and build public education in the United States and searching for alternatives to incarceration.

This exciting event has the endorsement and support of the City Councils of Oakland and Berkeley, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Congresswoman Barbara Lee and many more. It will include speeches by Delores Huerta, California State Assembly Education Chair Jackie Goldberg, and student, parent and community leaders from throughout California. We have also worked extensively to develop curriculum to support field trips for the hundreds of students who will be attending and these students have played an active role in developing and shaping the days events.

I am writing to ask for your urgent support. For every student from the Bay Area to attend this event we need to raise $18,000 to fund buses and food. We need to raise an additional $8,000 in the next week to meet this amount. Please help us cover this cost, so that all students planning on going can attend.

Checks can be made out to the Berkeley High School Development Group (Tax ID 94-3173406) and sent to the Education Not Incarceration Coalition c/o Critical Resistance, 1904 Franklin St., Suite 504, Oakland, CA 94612.

Please respond today!

Sincerely,
Jonah Zern
510.654.8613
East Bay Educators Justice Network