May 29, 2014
Seniors Care About Schools
Seniors Stand Up for Our Children’s Schools
Dallas, where Texas organizer Judy Bryant lives, is in the middle of a privatization takeover of its public schools. A Houston billionaire and a handful of aggressive politicians have seized on an obscure Texas law allowing school districts to give up democratically elected governance and go to an appointed governance system known euphemistically as “home rule.” The Texas Alliance has joined the coalition, “Our Community, Our Schools” in opposition to the privatization scheme. Below are the comments that Judy Bryant made on May 22 to the Dallas School Board meeting:
“I am Judy Bryant, Field Organizer for the 104,000 member Texas Alliance for Retired Americans which is part of the 4 million member National Alliance for Retired Americans. Our motto is “Let’s Not Be The Last Generation To Retire.” Many of you know I’m also a 32 year DISD retired teacher and a proud DISD Justin F. Kimball graduate. I’m speaking out as an educator and on behalf of the Dallas Chapter of The Texas Alliance, as our members are very concerned about the SOPS action to turn our district into a Home Rule District.
‘I understand that the petition signatures have been verified, but I urge you to keep in mind that there were close to 11,000 which were not valid for one reason or another. I both observed and was a part of the failure to follow the proper procedures as I’m not a DISD resident and was asked and allowed to sign the petition. These failures should not be taken lightly. I’m sure you are aware of the news media investigations on this issue being done by Brett Shipp and urge you to continue to pay close attention to future disclosures.
‘This whole procedure has been cloaked in secrecy from the beginning and with payment for signatures on the petitions, it is most certainly NOT a grass roots effort from the PUBLIC of DISD! Therein lies the key-PUBLIC. As retirees, our TARA members strongly support PUBLIC Education as a bedrock of our American way of life and most of us received a good public education. We want our grandchildren and future generations to be able to do the same. We agree that improvement is needed, but there are many other ways to improve our schools and a charter take over is NOT necessary and in fact could be detrimental to our children.
‘The Texas Alliance for Retired Americans is a part of the large coalition Our Community Our Schools and we support the continued efforts of this group and all the hard working DISD educators to improve the educational opportunities for our children in the PUBLIC schools!”
PLEASE contribute any amount to Texas Alliance for Retired Americans by clicking here.
Sign our petition to Dallas Mayor Rawlings asking him to stop pushing to privatize the school district and to NOT WELCOME the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) to Dallas July 30.
We’re also still gathering petitions for health care implementation in Texas. Sign that petition at:
http://afl.salsalabs.com/o/4055/c/1254/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=4684
Contact Gene Lantz at labordallas@sbcglobal.net
Judy Bryant at 214-729-0063
facebook: Texas Alliance for Retired Americans
Twitter: @Tx4TARA