Vallejo and Benicia: Organize Now to Stop School Closings!

Where: John F. Kennedy Library, Joseph Room, 505 Santa Clara Street, Vallejo, CA

When: Sunday February 20, 2005 1-4 PM

Ben Visnick is President of the Oakland Education Association (OEA) and has been a key organizer against the cuts and school closures in the Oakland Unified School District. Currently, the OEA is organizing a broad coalition including teachers, parents, staff, inter-faith organizations and a variety of labor unions including the ILWU, SEIU and UFCW in order to stop the de-funding of Oakland’s schools. The State Administrator for Oakland has recently suggested a “public/charter” hybrid model district wide. Such privatization efforts have proven disastrous in communities throughout the country and simply create a two-tiered education system that fosters social fragmentation rather than common experience. Marketing, rather than educational improvement becomes a chief concern and focus of resources.

The Community-Labor Alliance is organizing a community wide forum for teachers, parents, students and workers to discuss the funding crises in the Vallejo and Benicia School Districts and to hear from Sutter Solano Healthcare workers on Sutter’s unfair labor practices. This will be the first public forum organized by and for parents and teachers and importantly will unite parents ACROSS districts.

Why should we allow school budgets to be slashed and campuses closed on the pretext of a lack of funds, when this is the richest country in the world? The forum will follow an open participation format. Proposed solutions may include the following:

Forming a committee to research alternative funding sources for our schools including excise taxes on oil production and big box stores in Solano County. Findings will be shared with community groups and relevant union organizations in all Bay Area Counties.

Forming a region-wide support committee for teachers, school employees and healthcare workers in order to prevent attacks on these workers standard of living, work environment and our educational and healthcare systems.

Past CLA successes include: Removing all Diebold touchscreen voting machines from Solano County, Defeating a Jail Bond measure in Benicia to preserve our tax base for our failing schools, Organizing residents of the Adobe and Diablo Mobile Home Parks in Concord, Ca to prevent their landlord from extorting $16,000 in back rent per family, organized a community-labor solidarity rally for UFCW- 373R, participated in a community-labor picket with the Bricklayers Union-Local 3