Education not Incarceration Rally With Camejo Thursday

WHAT: Education not Incarceration Week TEACH IN as Delano Prison Construction Bonds Go On Sale

WHEN: Thursday, November 13, 2:00PM

WHERE: 1999 Harrison St (at 20th Street) Downtown Oakland in front of Siebert, Bradford, Shank & Co, the Senior Manager of the $375 million Delano II Prison Construction Bond Sale. (Near 19th Street Oakland BART station)

Join former Green Party Gubernatorial Candidate Peter Camejo and Professor Ruth Wilson Gilmore on Thursday November 13, at 2:00pm as they teach California legislators what happens when you slash education and social services to keep funding more prisons.

California legislators used a loophole to rob you of your vote on whether the state should go further in debt to construct the controversial Delano II prison. They start selling bonds to fund Delano II on November 13 – bonds which will end up costing us over $595 million. We need to let California government know that we can’t afford an increased achievement gap, and an environment that pushes kids out of schools and into prisons –and that we want our vote back to say no to building more prisons.

For more information, Contact Critical Resistance at 510-444-0484 or go to http://www.criticalresistance.org.

This teach in is part of Education Not Incarceration’s week long series of Teach Ins (November 12-18) leading up to the Statewide Day of Action November 19. For more information go to http://www.may8.org or email
ednotinc [at] aol.com
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 10, 2003

California Teachers Begin Week of Civics Lessons on Education Not
Incarceration: State Cuts Money to Schools While Prison Spending Increases

Teach-Ins Will Highlight Contradictions; Culminate in Statewide Day Of Action For more information:
Alice do Valle, Justice Now, 510-839-7654 ext. 4#, cell 510-499-4361 Dara Tom, 510-504-5455

WHAT: PRESS CONFERENCE & TEACH-INS begin across the country
WHEN: Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2003 – 11 a.m.
WHERE: Cox Elementary School, 9860 Sunnyside St., Oakland
WHO: Oakland City Councilwoman Desley Brooks
Jabari Anderson, Spanish Bilingual Teacher, Cox Elementary Rose Braz, Director, Critical Resistance
Dawn Williams, UC Student Association
Christine Marie & Tawn Kennedy, Shadow Light Puppet Theaters

Oakland, CA – Amid California’s worst budget crisis, and reports that California’s prison system overspent its current budget by $544 million while school funding is CUT $300 million, teachers across California will be holding Education Not Incarceration TEACH-INS building toward a statewide day of action.

Education Not Incarceration, the coalition of students, teachers, parents and community members that mobilized thousands to descend upon the State Capitol on May 8th, is launching a series of TEACH-INS from Nov. 12-19 in schools throughout the state, from the San Francisco Bay Area to Santa Cruz and Los Angeles.

During the TEACH-INS, students will get an important civics lesson: While California makes huge cuts to education, it continues to spend more money on prisons, dramatically impacting classrooms and communities across the state.

TEACH-INS will include Education Not Incarceration grade-appropriate
lesson plans. Some teachers will host guest speakers, including Oakland City Councilwoman Desley Brooks; former gubernatorial candidate Peter Camejo; and Lindsay Waggerman of the American Civil Liberties Union. Additionally, the San Francisco Youth Commission will talk with 80 youth who are incarcerated at the city’s Youth Guidance Center. A schedule of Teach-Ins and locations of schools will be announced during the press conference.

The TEACH-INS will culminate in a Statewide DAY OF ACTION. On Thursday, Nov. 19, students, teachers, parents and concerned community members will demand a reduction in the number of people behind bars, saving the state millions of dollars that should be restored to education. They will visit lawmakers’ district offices with letters, poems, spoken-word, drawings and stories of how budget cuts have impacted their schools. Also, students at UCLA and UC Berkeley will hold a rally outside the UC Regents meeting in Los Angeles.

Support for the Teach-Ins and Nov. 19 Statewide Day of Action has poured in from educators and elected officials across California, including Sen. Don Perata; San Francisco’s Board of Education; the Oakland Educators Association; and the Oakland City Council.