According to The Nation, ?thousands of working people, students, seniors, people on public assistance, and community activists? will be descending on Wall Street this Thursday ?to protest ?the city's billionaire mayor's? announced intent to eliminate 6,100 teaching positions (2,000 through attrition and the rest in layoffs).? Not surprisingly, according to the magazine, ?participants include SEIU workers, the United Federation of Teachers, the Communication Workers of America, ACT UP, Code Pink, Greater NYC for Change, Urban Youth Collaborative, the Working Families Party, and many more.? ?See the full list of sponsors at the event organizers website, where you will learn that ?There is no revenue crisis; there is an inequality crisis.? The Big Banks that crashed our economy, destroyed jobs, caused millions to lose their homes, and bankrupted city and state budgets, are reaping record profits?and yet they are refusing to pay their fair share of what it will take to rebuild our economy. From Wisconsin to Wall Street people are fighting back!?
Even if one sympathized with ?these folks' sentiments about the financial ?inequality crisis? or believed for a second or two that it was the big banks that ?crashed our economy,? the question is where the big unions ? and their contrail of sympathizers -- have been during the inequality crisis in education the last thirty years. Their silence in the face of crushing inner city educational failures has been deafening.? Not a single protest, that I know of, during this long inequality crisis.? Unfortunately, the only thing the May 12 march will prove is that in education, as in finance, you have to follow the money.
--Peter Meyer, Bernard Lee Schwartz Policy Fellow
