Maryland
In Hyattsville City of Prince George’s County, students of Northwestern High School participated in a walkout that was the culmination of months of student organizing, discussion and planning.
While anger towards the conditions in their school was widespread among the student body, only five students successfully walked out of the school during the scheduled time at 2:45 p.m. Since before classes even started that morning, the administration cracked down by detaining students in offices against their will and threatening them with expulsion. Immediately behind the five students who walked out were over 200 others who had been blocked from walking out by administrators, security and police K-9 units, herded into classrooms and the auditorium and threatened with suspension and other intimidation tactics.
Outside the school, students were met by dozens of community members, activists and University of Maryland College Park students who came to show solidarity. Protesters remained until after school let out, chanting “Money for jobs and education, not for youth incarceration!” and “¡Escucha, escucha, estamos en la lucha!”
After classes ended, more students joined to condemn the city government and Prince George’s County Public Schools for discriminatory, unfair and racist policies against the predominantly Black and Latino student body at Northwestern, and for being complicit in the deportation of hundreds of the county’s Filipino teachers who had been hired under the H-1B visa program. “This is about the quality of education that we’re getting. If you go to any other county they have a way better education, better books than we do … our county is mostly African-American and people don’t even know how bad our school is,” said an 11th grader.
The ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) and the Defend the Maryland DREAM Act Campaign provided a sound system for the rally, where many students took turns chanting and giving testimonies about the conditions at Northwestern. “We can’t get an education because there are too many students in our school,” one student said. “I have been here for four years and my smallest class was 35 students!”
Students in the “English for Speakers of Other Languages” also spoke about how beneficial the program was to them until it faced massive cuts from PGCPS.
Overall, students saw the necessity of taking direct action to make their voices heard. One student told Liberation News: “I feel like this is a step closer to change. We’ve needed this and this is my last year, but I’ve waited for something like this since I was a freshman.”
New York City
Students from schools across New York City gathered at the Department of Education on Chambers Street for an important protest. On the steps of the DoE, students engaged in a speak-out, expressing personal stories of hardships resulting from tuition hikes and increasing student debt. From there, the crowd of about 250 students marched across the Brooklyn Bridge, chanting “Education is a right, fight fight fight fight,” to downtown Brooklyn to rally outside of banks like JPMorgan that profit off of the privatization of education. From there, the day’s events ended with a rally in Fort Greene Park to oppose school closures.
Philadelphia
In Philadelphia, the National Day of Action for Education was marked by hundreds of students, workers and community members in the streets. The day’s actions began with simultaneous rallies on Temple University and University of Pennsylvania campuses. Participants then marched south and east to converge on the governor’s office in protest of his protection of private over public interest, exemplified by his increased funding for prison construction and closure of public schools.
The march then continued, heading north to the School Board Building, in solidarity with public school nurses, teachers and other labor unions protesting mass layoffs and the privatization of education in the new emphasis on charter schools.
Speakers ranged from anti-prison activists to labor organizers, from public school teachers to college students, revealing the links between these attacks on education as a larger attack on the working class. Budget cuts that result in tuition hikes, school closures and layoffs begin with corporate tax loopholes and other protections of private over public interest. This is not just citywide, this is not just statewide, or even nationwide. It is part of the larger struggle against those in power, who protect profit at the expense of the common good.
Sacramento and San Francisco
Ten thousand university, community college and high school students,
educators and community activists marched on the California State
Capitol in Sacramento March 5 to protest cuts in higher education in an
action called “Occupy the Capitol.” The students, education workers and
others marched through the streets to the Capitol to demand funding for
public education. Many chanted “They say ‘cut back’ we say ‘fight
back!’” and “No cuts, no fees, education should be free!”
The marchers then participated in a spirited rally on the lawn in front
of the Capitol. Hundreds entered the building to participate in a
general assembly to raise the demands to fully fund education and social
services, to tax the rich, to reject Gov. Jerry Brown’s budget and to
defend free speech and the right of assembly. Almost 70 people were
arrested when they refused to leave.
The protests were sparked by state budget cuts that have led to sharp
increases in tuition and a decrease in the number of courses offered at
public universities and colleges. Last July, Brown signed a new budget
into law in which $750 million was cut from both the California State
University and University of California budgets. This has prompted both
systems to raise tuitions and fees for their students. The cost of
tuition has tripled at California’s public universities over the past
decade.
Attending the rally in Sacramento was Peta Lindsay, presidential
candidate for the Party for Socialism and Liberation. Lindsay raised the
campaign demand that all student debt be canceled.
The March 5 “Occupy the Capitol” action followed the March 1
“International Day of Action to Defend Education and Social Services”
held in many communities around the state. Students and faculty around
the country organized demonstrations and teach-ins protesting budget
cuts to education and educational inequality, and advocated for quality
and affordable education for all. Students also walked off their
campuses, marching through their communities to raise awareness of the
issues they face in obtaining an education.
After school on March 1, hundreds of people gathered in San Francisco’s
Civic Center to demand full funding for education and social services.
Members of Teachers for Public Education spoke at the rally and said
that education is a right and that it must be priority, along with jobs,
health care and affordable housing.
“The 99 Mile March for Education and Social Services” was launched,
leaving from Oakland and Berkeley heading to Sacramento, carrying
banners, picket signs and an oversized pencil. A member of the PSL
marched as well and documented the experience.
Only direct action in the streets will force real change; lobbying
politicians will get the movement nowhere. Without unified action in the
streets, neither the Democrats nor the Republicans will change the
priorities of the system when it comes to addressing the needs of
students and their teachers.
Washington, D.C.
Students from Washington, D.C. and Baltimore colleges converged at McPherson Square, the site of one of D.C.’s continuing occupations, for a strong showing as part of the National Day of Education. American University student Mana Aliabadi read—and the group repeated through a “mic check”—the “Students’ Declaration of Grievances and Demands,” which states “that education is a fundamental right” and “that education as a system is currently broken in that it does not meet these criteria.”
Carrying signs and banners in defense of education, including many large-scale replicas of their favorite books, and chanting “We are unstoppable, free education is possible” and “The students have spoken, the system is broken,” the students took to the streets of D.C. and marched to Sallie Mae, a major originator of student loans. Private security guards lined the front of the building as the students held a speak-out. The students then continued to the Department of Education to conclude the event.
Members of the D.C. branch of the Party for Socialism and Liberation attended with signs that read “Seize the Banks — Cancel Student Debt” and distributed copies of the PSL’s “Seize the Banks” program, which was well received. One recipient of a flyer commented: “You know what’s interesting about this? It’s actually possible.” This was reflective of the high level of energy and optimism evident in the crowd.
Contributing to this report: Anne Gamboni, Andrew Castro, Ethan Jury, Mike Chrisemer and Sarah Sloan.
