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March 4 National Day of Action to Defend Education

Submitted by Chapel Hill SDS on Mon, 2010-02-01 16:33

We'd like to invite you to an organizing meeting on Thursday, February 4, at 6:30pm in Dey 307. to build for an action on UNC's campus as part of the March 4 National Day of Action to Defend Education.

There has been some really incredible actions in California over the last several months by workers, students and community who   challenged massive state budget cuts affecting public education united by organizing, rallying, having teach-ins, occupying, and striking, Coming out of these historic events, there is now a national call for action to defend public education that is picking up steam around the country. In just the few weeks since it has been out, the call for action has been endorsed by hundreds of groups across the country. Tens of thousands of students and workers across the U.S. will be taking action on March 4! I've copied the call and endorsers below, but please check out http://defendeducation.org for more info.
At UNC, tuition hikes and budget cuts are having a detrimental effect on our campus community as well. Like in California and elsewhere, students and workers are being forced to saddle the burden of all of these cuts.

-- class sections drastically cut, resulting in larger class sizes, fewer graduation-requirement classes
--in-state tuition has risen from $2,365 to $5,625 over the past 10 years (a nearly 140% increase), and every UNC student is being charged $200 to plug the state's budget shortfall
--fewer students finding a job after college, with only 22% from last year's graduating class finding jobs after leaving school
-- nearly 150 workers laid off, and despite Chancellor Thorp's promise that layoffs would come from middle management, many were among the lowest paid workers on campus
-- workers who have kept their job are being forced to do more work for the same wage, compensating for the loss of the laid off workers and unfilled positions, 

with the University more heavily relying on lower paid temp workers 
-- the Tar Heel Temps program has recently been eliminated, resulting in mass layoffs and signaling a growing trend towards the corporatization of the University, as they plan to replace Tar Heel Temps with a private company


Another important event coming up is Historic Thousands on Jones Street on Saturday, February 13 in Raleigh, which is an annual gathering spearheaded by the NC NAACP that brings together thousands of people from across the state to support a 14 point People's Agenda. Last year, 150 UNC students participated in HK on J, and it would be great to mobilize UNC students again this year to join the "Education and Jobs for Youth" contingent.

As the University continues to try to find ways to cut costs, UNC will surely continue to look to put the burden of these cuts onto our backs--unless we do something about it! If students and workers take a stand and speak out against these cuts, who knows what we can accomplish. 
Please join us on February 4th for this first planning meeting for what March 4 could look like on UNC's campus. We look forward to talking soon and working together to organize for March 4! Take care.

In solidarity,
UNC Chapel Hill SDS

 

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March 4 National Day of Action to Defend Education

As people throughout the country struggle under the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, public education from pre-K to higher and adult education is threatened by budget cuts, layoffs, privatization, tuition and fee increases, and other attacks. Budget cuts degrade the quality of public education by decreasing student services and increasing class size, while tuition hikes and layoffs force the cost of the recession onto students and teachers and off of the financial institutions that caused the recession in the first place. Non-unionized charter schools threaten to divide, weaken and privatize the public school system and damage teachers’ unions, which are needed now more than ever. More and more students are going deep into debt to finance their education, while high unemployment forces many students and youth to join the military to receive a higher education. And all of the attacks described above have hit working people and people of color the hardest.

In California, students, teachers, workers, parents, and faculty have taken action against these attacks. They took to the streets in a one-day strike on September 24th, organized strikes and actions across the state during the University of California Board of Regents meeting from November 18th to 20th, and have called for a state-wide day of action on March 4th. These actions have created a broad mass movement in California, drawing in students from all over the state to create a powerful struggle. As the effects of the economic crisis continue to spread into the education system nationally, it’s time to join our voices with students and workers in California and draw inspiration from their example.

We support each group or coalition organizing in the manner and for the duration of their choosing. In solidarity with those in California, we the below-signed individuals and organizations call on students, teachers, workers, parents, faculty, and staff across the country to join together on March 4th to Take A Stand For Education!

Visit the Web site for more details at http://www.defendeducation.org.

Endorse the call at the bottom of the page or by sending an email to march4nationaldayofaction@gmail.com.

Find us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=213637229312.

To join the national discussion, please visit the March 4th Google Group athttp://groups.google.com/group/march4thaction.

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