Anyone Who's Ever Had A Heart- I HEART PUBLIC EDUCATION!

This Lou Reed/Velvet Underground song performed here by the Cowboy Junkies is clearly an emotional plea. Just read the lines:

"Anyone who's ever had a heart
Wouldn't turn around and break it
And anyone who's ever played a part
Wouldn't turn around and hate it"

And I'm not gonna lie, It's Valentine's Day, so I'm really just trying to tug at your heartstrings. I'm also trying to tug at the heartstrings of our Government Leaders (Barak Obama, Mitch Daniels, etc) and Educational Leaders (Arne Duncan, Tony Bennett etc.) and our Senators and our Representaives, the media, and the public, many of whom are buying into rhetoric and lies. I'm asking them "Could you maybe? Could you maybe stop this runaway train political agenda you have regarding Public Education and for one second LISTEN?

LISTEN TO YOUR HEART? or maybe more importantly- listen to the HEARTBEATS of our children in this country? Children (rich or poor, gifted, average, or challenged) who deserve your understanding that to destroy PUBLIC education not only destroys their chances in life but their future of living in a democratic society. Do you see that those are the hearts you have in your hands?

Because really, "Anyone who's ever had a heart" and "played a part" for PUBLIC Edcuation, really wouldn't turn around and vote for charters, for vouchers, for merit pay for educators, for the end of collective bargaining for teachers etc and so on. They really wouldn't turn around and break CHILDRENS' HEARTS that way.

Now I could spend the rest of this post giving you facts, figures, statistics about why I feel the way I do and why I think those in positions of power should believe and act on those realities instead of following political agendas. I could cite for you all kinds of reputable and respectable sources who are speaking up about it all. I would write more in depth about why the survival and the health of our democracy depends on PUBLIC education. I could do that.

But today? Well, it's (almost) Valentine's Day and so I'll leave that to past and future posts and to the thousands and thousands of other people with more credentials in education than I have. Today I'm just going to tug at your heartstrings. That's all.

And I'm going to tell you about an organization that is FIGHTING against this Heartlessness going on in our country regarding PUBLIC education and I'm participating in their "I (HEART) PUBLIC EDUCATION" Blog Campaign. That organization is SAVE OUR SCHOOLS MARCH AND NATIONAL CALL TO ACTION. Their website is http://www.saveourschoolsmarch.org and here is their message for you this Valentine's Day:

"Everyone who cares about young people cares about our schools. Our best schools nurture children, make them feel safe, and able to take the risks they need in order to learn. But our schools are in danger of becoming even more narrowly focused on test preparation, while class sizes rise, and teachers are blamed for the ravages povery inflicts on their students.

We are responding. We LOVE our schools. We declare Valentine's Day. 2011, to be "I LOVE PUBLIC EDUCATION" blog day. On this day we will write our hearts ou, about why it is that public education is so important to us, our children, and our democratic society. Join us and tells us why you love public education too, send your comments and posts to saveourschoolsmarch@gmail.com. Writing will be displayed at the www.SaveOurSchoolsmarch.org website, and will be tweeted with the hashtag #LovePublicEd. We offer the march and events of July 28 to 31st in Washington, DC, as a focal point for this movement, and we ask participants to link to this event, so we can build momentum for our efforts. If your readers wish to repeat this post on their own blog, we would LOVE it."

I really feel that "Anyone Who Has a HEART" would join the cause.