Close to 500 teachers and supporters from across the United States, including a large contingent of Filipino educators, gathered at Washington DC for the Save Our Schools Rally that called for quality education.
Under the scorching heat, the DC Teachers’ Union told demonstrators to press local and national lawmakers for improved education while protecting the rights of foreign teachers.
Hollywood actor Matt Damon, whose mother was a public school teacher, was among the guest speakers. Performers, musician poets and entertainers also showed support.
Filipino educators from Maryland, who are facing their own immigration and labor issues such as the debarment order against Prince Georges County public schools for “willful violation” of labor laws by collecting fees from the teachers, joined the Save our Schools March and National Call to Action.
“This is a big issue because if we will be debarred hundreds of teachers will be affected. But the real effect will be felt by the youth, the students,” said Maryland teacher Arnel Anog.
The turnout of Filipino teachers at the rally showed their commitment to the US educational system and reflected their dedication to providing quality education to all students, organizers said.
According to its website, the purpose of the rally was to help rescue US schools from the depreciating quality of education.
“As concerned citizens, we demand an end to the destructive policies and rhetoric that have eroded confidence in our public schools, demoralized teachers, and reduced the education of too many of our children to nothing more than test preparation,” it said.
Marisol Angala, an officer of the DC teachers union, an affiliate with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), said: “The issue here is there too much focus on the standardized test, on closing schools and terminating teachers and it’s not about the kids anymore,”
“Like me, I teach Algebra 1,”Anog said to FilAm Star. “Because we have the high school assessment, I teach more about the test so my classroom will be competent together with the school and county to meet the standards. So when the kids get to Algebra 2 they don’t know much about Algebra1 because the focus is not on the curriculum but on the assessment test which is not good.”
Angala agrees with her colleague.
“The public schools is supposed to be a collaboration of reaching out to the community and focusing on what is good for the kids and not about all this things which is counter-productive, but we are all affected by this,” said Angala.
The Filipino teachers were holding up placards and streamers with messages like “Save Our Teachers, Save Our Schools, we stand united.”
Also displayed at the rally site were tombstone-like protest markers with the message “Here lies the future of public education unless…”
Some parents were also present to express their support for the teachers.
“It’s the love and dedication for these teachers, their being a role model that made an impact in my daughter’s life and helped her defy ADHD,” said Donna Burnett.
“This Save Our School rally is an avenue where we can create awareness to all parents, to all community members that we have to stand-up to make sure we provide quality education that our students need,” said Millet de Vera Panga, an elementary school teacher and board representative of the Pilipino Educators Network.
“We have had so many budget cuts so many teachers lost their jobs so what kind of educations are we offering our children? How can we deliver quality education if they are removing and demoralizing highly qualified teachers?” she said.
Under the federal No Child Left Behind law, foreign teachers, including Filipinos, were hired to fill the positions of “highly qualified” educators.
“Because of the wrong way of doing the reform, the international or foreign teachers they have hired are now the ones suffering. We were able to fill in the position that was not filled. We were able to push forward with the requirement of the No Child Left Behind law, now their terminating the teachers because their closing the schools, reduction in force, there’s no more need for the teachers,” said Angala.
She added: “So the ones affected are the Filipino teachers. And it’s against the law to terminate them because who will they get to replace these highly qualified, highly certified teachers that are department heads, teacher leaders and mentor teachers as well. Terminating these teachers is a disservice to the kids.”
Last weekend’s rally converged at the Ellipse fronting the White House South lawn, and was just one of the four day events that started on July 28.
Around mid-afternoon everyone marched to the White House, where their demand to reclaim the school as a place of learning and democracy were read.