I just got the following major announcement:
Washington, D.C. (September 8, 2009)????????In the first-ever act of school choice-related civil disobedience, prominent education reform leaders will block entrance to the U.S. Department of Education building today at 9:30 A.M. and demand that President Barack Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan act immediately to save and strengthen the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program.
The protest will take place at 9:30 a.m. today, Tuesday, September 8, at the U.S. Department of Education headquarters (4th and Maryland Avenues, SW) in????Washington,????D.C.
Protest leaders Kevin P. Chavous, Virginia Walden Ford, Rev. Anthony J. Motley, Dr. Howard Fuller, Gerard Robinson, and Darrell Allison say they will????stand and????block????entrance to the????U.S. Department of Education headquarters in a show of support for the 216 low-income District students who, because of actions by President Obama and Secretary Duncan,????were refused entry this week into the schools of their parents' choice. The Department of Education revoked the Opportunity????Scholarships of these 216 children last Spring.
The leaders will be????cheered on????by a group of families supportive of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, as well as by????D.C. Councilman Marion Barry,????in a dramatic protest to convince the president of the need for bold education reform.
???????President Obama plans to speak to????America's schoolchildren through a televised address on Tuesday afternoon,??????? said Kevin P. Chavous, a former Democratic D.C. City Councilman and board member of DC Children First. ???????Now, he owes it to the families of D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program recipients????????as well as to the 216 children who saw their scholarships revoked by the Education Department????????to answer important questions about the futures of these children and many others.???????
???????President Obama and Secretary Duncan need to face the cameras today and????explain to D.C. families why they seek to end one of the most successful federally-funded education programs,??????? said Virginia Walden Ford, executive director of D.C. Parents for School Choice. "The way this Administration has treated these children is deplorable."
WHAT:
National education leaders will stage a civil disobedience protest and news conference on the grounds of the U.S. Department of Education Building in????Washington,????D.C.????????seeking to save the endangered D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program.
WHERE:
U.S.????Department of Education,????400 Maryland Ave SW????(4th and????Maryland????Avenues, SW)
WHEN:
Tuesday, September 8, 2009 at 9:30 AM.
WHO:
The Hon. Kevin P. Chavous
Board Member, DC Children First, Former Ward 7????D.C.????City????Councilman
Virginia Walden Ford
Executive Director, DC Parents for School Choice/ DC Black????Alliance????for Educational Options
Rev. Anthony J. Motley
Chair, Social Action Committee, Council of Churches of Greater????Washington
Dr. Howard Fuller
Chair, Black????Alliance????for Educational Options
Former Superintendent,????Milwaukee????Public Schools
Gerard Robinson
President, Black????Alliance????for Educational Options
Darrell Allison
President, Parents for Educational Freedom in????North Carolina