OTL Campaign Newsletter 
May 16, 2012
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AR Student Bill of Rights

UPCOMING EVENTS

National Conference on School Diversity

May 17th in Washington, DC

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Netroots Logo

Check out the great education panels lined up for Netroots Nation on June 7th-10th! Panelists include Diane Ravitch and John Jackson.

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GIRLS FOR GENDER EQUITY

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Tickets are on sale!
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New York City's public schools are being redlined: the practice of systematically denying resources to poor and minority neighborhoods.

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Tell Mayor Michael Michael Bloomberg to stop redlining schools! 

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OTL HIGHLIGHTS
AR Student Bill of Rights
Arkansas Student Bill of Rights
Students and teachers shouldn't be held accountable to high-stakes test scores and standards without the resources they need to pass those tests and meet those standards. Based on a 2002 proposal in the CA legislature and the National OTL Campaign, "An AR Student Bill of Rights: Using Opportunity to Learn Standards to Ensure Every Student Has a Chance to Suceed" outlines exactly what students and parents have a right to expect from their school districts in order to ensure all students have a fair and substantive opportunity to learn. It's time to hold education officials and policymakers accountable!
Read more >


CO Discipline Bill
Colorado Says No to Harsh Discipline Policies
In a major victory for Colorado students and the movement to end zero-tolerance discipline policies, the Colorado state legislature passed a bill that gives schools more flexibility in school discipline policies and encourages them to pursue restorative justice practices rather than referring students to law enforcement. The "Fair Discipline in Schools Act" is one of the most far-reaching state laws on school discipline reform and puts CO at the forefront of the movement to end racially discriminatory and ineffective school discipline policies. Read more>

CFE ELC
Give Students Their Day in Court
Years after the landmark Campaign for Fiscal Equity ruling, New York State has reversed its promise to provide every student with a "sound basic education" and has enacted a series of devastating education budget cuts. Now, Hussein v. The State of New York, known as the Small Cities School case, is challenging the state to live up to its 2006 CFE promise. The state has tried repeatedly to have the case dismissed, which would deny the parents and students their right to pursue justice and fair funding for their schools. Read more>

Diane Ravitch
Privatizing Philadelphia's Public Schools
The community resistance continues against the new proposal to dismantle the Philadelphia public school system and to drastically increase the number of charter schools operating in the city. Diane Ravitch: By decentralizing the public school system, policymakers and education officials are choosing not to address the real reasons for Philly's struggling schools, namely, that "Philadelphia's public schools have never been adequately funded by the state." 
Read more>

Wisconsin OTL
Governor's Power Could Devastate Students
If we shortchange our teachers, we shortchange our kids. Thomas Beebe, project director for OTL-Wisconsin, describes how Wisconsin Governor Walker's education policies have forced the state's public schools to do just that. The governor was instrumental in interpreting state law to allow local school boards to not consider teachers' ongoing education and educational credits as part of base wages. For those who want to ensure the best and brightest teachers are in the classroom, that move is "counter-intuitive, contrary to research and just plain wrong."
Read more>

RESOURCES

Opportunity Gap Toolkit
Check out the Opportunity Gap Toolkit!
The opportunity gap is the unconscionable disparity in access to educational opportunities such as high-quality teachers, early childhood education, college preparatory curriculum and equitable instructional materials. This OTL Campaign toolkit includes talking points, key data and resources - all the tools you'll need to advocate for a fair and substantive opportunity to learn for all children.
Read more>

IN THE NEWS
  • Put Students First in Education Reform!: New York City parent organizer Ocynthia Williams criticizes Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration for blaming schools for failure without first having "an honest discussion about why and how many of these schools have been failing for years." Read more>

  • Media Questions New Orleans's Charters: This news story digs into the evidence on why New Orleans' massive charter school experiment - routinely hailed by proponents of corporate-style education reform as the new model for urban education - should not, in fact, be a model of reform. Read more>

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National Opportunity to Learn Campaign
675 Massachusetts Avenue, 8th Floor | Cambridge, MA 02139
www.otlcampaign.org | [email protected] | 617-876-7700

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