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| Socialist
Party
USA: Press Release |
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Socialist Party
USA (SP-USA) endorses the call for a
National Day of Action to Defend Education to be held on March
4th,
2010.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009- The Socialist
Party USA (SP-USA) endorses the call for a National Day of Action
to Defend Education to be held on March 4th, 2010. SP-USA
locals through out the country will participate in organizing
political actions in defense of education. The SP-USA
endorsement is part of a national call made by student groups
responsible for recent campus occupations and student protests in
California and New York City.
The call for protest is a response to recent actions by State and
Local governments to reduce education budgets as a way to fill in
budget gaps. At least 26 states are implementing cuts to
K-12 education programs, including Illinois whose cuts will make
more than 10,000 children ineligible for early childhood
education and Massachusetts, which carried out deep cuts on a
number of early care programs. Cuts in other states will result in
tuition increases, school closings, privatization, the
elimination of after-school programs, and general restrictions on
access to higher education.
The SP-USA opposes all cuts to education. We believe that access to
free, high quality, public education at all stages of life is a
fundamental human right. As such, we fully support the call for a
national day of action in order to express our opposition to the
education cutbacks taking place throughout the nation. “As Socialists,”
said Billy Wharton, Co-chair of the Socialist Party USA, “we see
education as a human right. On March 4th we’ll raise our
voices in protest to defend this right.”
The national call released by the organizers states, “As people
throughout the country struggle under the worst economic crisis since
the Great Depression, public education from pre-K to higher and
adult education is threatened by budget cuts, layoffs, privatization,
tuition and fee increases, and other attacks. Budget cuts degrade the
quality of public education by decreasing student services and
increasing class size, while tuition hikes and layoffs force the cost
of the recession onto students and teachers and off of the financial
institutions that caused the recession in the first place. All of
the attacks…have hit working people and people of color the
hardest.” The SP-USA supports this call and will play a role in
organizing with student and other groups to make the day a success.
For more information and interviews please contact:
Kristin Schall Member, National Committee, SP-USA
kristinspnyc@gmail.com 928-308-7563
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The Socialist Party USA is a democratic socialist organization that
believes that the vast wealth of society should be used for the good of
all society. www.socialistparty-usa.org
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