If we examine today’s public school systems, especially those in Black and Latino communities, it is hard to envision a system that could be worse, or more dysfunctional.
We have, in fact, a mis-education system, one designed to do more harm than good.
Many cities are experiencing a 50% dropout rate. In cities like Baltimore, these dropout rates soar to over 70%.
In the richest nation on earth, this is nothing short of scandalous.
Why is this so?
Because political elites, in service to business elites, are intent on selling off society’s educational assets to the privatization industries.
In a word, it’s about money, pure and simple.
It’s a certain kind of politics that literally sells out children’s educational inheritance.
This is a politics where business interests reign supreme even over the most fundamental function of the state – teaching its young.
How do we begin to address this long train of failure?
During the heyday of the Movement, groups across the country erected their own schools called Freedom Schools.
They taught lessons based on the real world, real life, about history, politics, social change, and the like. And they gave kids a hook into where they stood in life.
As today’s Baby Boomers age, they present a great opportunity to utilize a valuable educational resource to rebuild Freedom Schools, to staff them and teach in them.
By so doing, two social groupings help each other, with Boomers helping children, and children providing a great opportunity for older people to volunteer and serve the children.
Our public school system is largely nonfunctional, for the political system has corrupted its basic role in society.
People, in community, in a social movement, can rescue this failing institution, by re-tasking it to serve the needs of children.
By so doing, we learn valuable lessons from the past, to draft it into the future, to knit two generations together, and make the whole stronger.
![Prison Radio is sharing an abbreviated version of a press release covering recent racist incidents at SCI Rockview in PA and the organizing to demand accountability. We are reaching out to people incarcerated at Rockview as well as recently transferred folks, inviting them to call, in hopes of hearing commentaries from them.
Benner Township, PA.-
On November 24th, 2023, imprisoned people at SCI Rockview found two nooses hanging in the CO’s office, displayed visibly for many prisoners to see. When the prisoners asked the staff why the nooses were hung, they were told it was a joke.
By December 4th, prisoners filed a grievance to document what they saw, noting that the hanging of the nooses was “unethical, racially motivated, hateful, [a] deliberate debasement of black inmates" and “unsafe for inmates, staff, [and] the whole prison in general.” In the grievance, they demanded that Sgt. Mosser and CO Richard be fired and investigated for a hate crime, and for CO Kirchner to get therapy. Captain Andrews, the head of security, denied the grievance.
The sergeant and COs are still working in the prison to this day, with no repercussions...
As of March 10th, prisoners have reached out to Pennsylvania officials at the Dept. of Corrections in a letter campaign, sending 100 copies of the grievance. Copies of the letter also were mailed to Governor Shapiro, Senator Fetterman, Senator Street, and various advocacy groups. The demands for relief in the original grievance have now become the platform of demands for this campaign. About 20 of the 100 letters were withheld by the prison.
Activists on the outside are joining forces with prisoners to elevate their demands, flooding the phone lines of DOC offices, assisting with outreach to media, and circulating the stories of prisoners who have found unity in opposition to the facility's virulent institutional racism.
In any other workplace, hanging a noose would be grounds for immediate termination. However, Nicki Paul, the superintendent's assistant and "grievance coordinator" informed the public that they self-investigated their staff and found they did nothing wrong.
Read the full article at i
https://conta.cc/4ayDxlB](https://www.prisonradio.org/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png)