IN 11th HOUR PUSH, PUBLIC ADVOCATE DE BLASIO BRINGS VOICE OF PARENTS TO CITY HALL

Public Advocate Bill De Blasio has taken the lead organizing and campaigning against teacher layoffs. Please do see the video below where De Blasio and his wife discuss the importance of class size and the need for educational models that support and protect our teachers. To join the grass roots campaign and have your voice heard, please do log onto the web site listed below. Hopefully the voice of the people will be listened to.

Gregory
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Parents Speak Out: Meet Bill & Chirlane from Joel Clark on Vimeo.

IN 11th HOUR PUSH, PUBLIC ADVOCATE DE BLASIO BRINGS VOICE OF PARENTS TO CITY HALL
Delivers petitions, testimonials and resolutions as parents stage call-a-thon opposing teacher cuts


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 20, 2011

NEW YORK – Public Advocate Bill de Blasio capped off a month of parent activism and outreach against teacher layoffs by delivering to City Hall over 7,000 parent petition signatures, dozens of video and audio testimonials from parents, and 18 resolutions from Community Education Councils, Community Boards and the Chancellor’s Parent Advisory Council. The package represents enormous parent opposition to the administration’s plans that will shed more than 6,000 teachers as part of budget cuts.

See all the parent actions delivered today at: http://advocate.nyc.gov/ParentsAgainstCuts

“The parents of this city are speaking loudly if City Hall is willing to listen. Classroom teachers—not technology, not consultants, not office furniture—are parents’ number-one priority in education,” said Public Advocate Bill de Blasio. “From community board resolutions in Brooklyn to signing petitions at afternoon dismissals in Harlem to online video testimonials from Queens, parents are standing up against these cuts and demanding we find the will to keep teachers in front of our classrooms.”

In addition to delivering parent messages to City Hall, parent volunteers will hit the phones at the Public Advocate de Blasio’s office on Tuesday night, calling thousands of fellow parents across the five boroughs and urging them to register their opposition to teacher cuts through 311.

The efforts include:

7,177 petition signatures from parents who oppose teacher layoffs.

63 audio, video and written testimonials, including one from Public Advocate de Blasio and his wife, Chirlane McCray.


18 resolutions opposing teacher layoffs from:
· Chancellor's Citywide Parent Advisory Council
· Community Education Council 18, Brooklyn
· Community Education Council 15, Brooklyn
· Community Education Council 25, Queens
· Community Education Council 11, Bronx
· Community Education Council 12, Bronx
· Community Education Council 14, Brooklyn
· Community Education Council 9, Bronx
· Community Education Council 17, Brooklyn
· Community Education Council 3, Manhattan
· Community Education Council 30, Queens
· Community Education Council 1, Manhattan
· Community Education Council 6, Manhattan
· Community Education Council 31, Staten Island
· Community Education Council 7, Bronx
· Manhattan Community Board 7
· Manhattan Community Board 10
· Bronx Community Board 14