Last night I arrived at the St. Andrew's Community Centre building expecting to hear Superintendent of Portland Public Schools Vicki Phillips discuss publicly the massive loss in staff that is being slated for schools here in Portland. More then a third of staff at local area public schools will be cut for next year due to lack of funding. 248 licensed staff positions more then likely will be lost, a vast majority of those in North/Northeast Portland.
Most of the students who attended these schools are people of color, and low income working families who seem to be the target time and time again of unfair cuts to their local schools. Recently these cuts have become based on a test score system from the No Child Left Behind Act. Forcing teachers in schools to teach and prepare students for testing, instead of teaching an actual education one can take out into the world and use to make educated decisions. I'd like to also note that almost all schools on the east side of the willamette river are where most poor, working poor, and low income families live. Not to mention where a vast majority of the cuts are.
As I took my seat and the presentation began titled:
Not in Our Name: Students Speak Out Against School Closures, Academic Achievement, and the Attack on Public Education.
I was pleasantly surprised that the presentation was to be put on by four young women who sat up at a table facing the crowd that had gathered there. Off to their right was another table which was very noticeable for the fact that it had nobody sitting at it. On the table though next to a bottle of water for each of the three vacant seats there was a name. Those names were Bobby Reagan (PPS School Board member), David Wynde (PPS School Board member), and Vicki Phillips.
Seats empty still to the right of them, the students decided to begin their presentation anyway.
The presentation highlighted findings from students who have conducted research for over a year on the negative effects of unfair media, gentrification, high stakes testing and budget cuts. In addition to the presentation, youth leaders from Sisters in Action for Power also presented their idea's to support neighborhood public schools.
A press release that was handed out goes on.
Through recent classroom presentations and surveys with students, parents and teachers, Sister in Action learned firsthand how negative stereotypes in the media and the pressure of standardized testing has affected students who now feel like they have no community support. "We want to share the good things--all the things we love about our school and the reasons why we choose to stay and support them," Elisha Williams, 16, Sisters in Action member.
For the past year Sisters in Action has been working on a SOS (Support Our Schools and Students) campaign. The Organization is committed to supporting neighborhood schools and bringing awareness to the struggles facing public education. "We've been working hard to raise awareness for over a year on the struggles our schools are facing, it's about time the community, school board and Superintendent hear about it," Courtney Jones, 17, Youth Leader at Sisters in Action. Young women at Sisters in Action have been working to dispel the myths about education inequity and raise awareness on the achievements and successes of neighborhood schools.
And so the four girls giving the presentation did just that. They did such a great job in fact that both PPS School Board member Bobby Reagan and Superintendent Vicki Phillips, along with one of their aids were so intimidated they would not sit in front of the large crowd that had gathered, or address the four girls from Sisters in Action who had just given an amazing slideshow. Instead they choose to stay in the crowd in the second row as spectators.
Well... it seems that the four young women who had worked so hard to get the word out about this were not going to let that slide at all, and it didn't. As the first young women spoke she tore into the issues at hand, diving into the issues that really mattered. No smoke screens, no running around the facts, it was right in your face and well said. At this point both Bobby Reagan and Vicki Phillips started to speak from their seats in the second row, trying to address the young women who was speaking. They were given a microphone and the young women giving the speaking continued to ask hard, tough questions. Most of which Vicki Phillips and Bobby Reagan agreed with, but had not answer for. A check list asking the superintendent and school board member there to address a specific proposal went up on the wall with a simple yes or no box which would then be checked depending on the answers the young women received.
It really put Vicki Phillips and Bobby Reagan on the spot as they picked their answers very carefully, still hiding in the second row of the crowd talking into a microphone.
Sister in Action member after Sister in Action member (four in all who spoke) continued for the remainder of the talk going back and fourth between both parties in front of everyone. I'm glad I went for it put a lot of things into prospective from the information that was given. I look forward to seeing more actions like this take place in the future. Way to go Sisters!
A little more information on Sisters in Action for Power:
Sisters in Action for Power is a community based, multi-racial, multi-issue intergenerational organization dedicated to developing the leadership of low income women and women and girls of color by engaging our members in comunity driven campaigns to promote racial, economic and gender equity.
1732 NE Alberta
Portland, Oregon 97211
Phone: 503.331.1244
Fax: 503.331.1287
E-mail:  sisters@hevanet.com
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Here is a link to a nice piece of audio --