How can you put a price on educa-tion? Why should the quality of my

education be determined by funds which are based on local property taxes rather than the needs of the students?

At Martin Luther King High School, students deal with issues associated with a lack of funding. Year after year, we suffer from a lack of experienced teachers, school books and materials, and the horrible physical condition of old school buildings. Currently, we are being run by Founda-tions Inc. which is a non-profit company in partnership with the school district. Since its initiation in 2001, M.L.K. has remained in Corrective Action II.

CA II schools make up 25% of the district. Yet, 44% of all teacher vacancies in Philadelphia (57 of 131 vacancies) are in CA II Schools. Nearly half of the schools

that employ first year teachers are man-aged by EMOs. Qualified teachers must be evenly distributed through out the dis-trict. It is becoming an issue for students. The faculty to student ratio is more than the staff can handle. Students are often pushed aside and treated as if we are just a number. It is essential that teachers make an effort to reach out to parents and try to understand what each student needs to succeed.

The school district should do more for us. Teachers are underpaid and that affects the way they teach. Teachers are not given

adequate funds to conduct their lessons. Although King is a comprehensive high school, my Health related Technology course, which acts as a vocational class, is not as interactive as it should be. We need more wheelchairs, beds and basic equipment that are used in hos-pitals. Without these materials, our lessons are dragged.

This corrupts the curriculum, which should be challenging. We are not offered a wide variety of courses to choose from. School has become uninter-esting.

If the quality of

my education does not mean anything to the School District then I do not know what does. If the EMO run-ning my school cannot provide the students of Martin Luther King High School with fully qualified, experi-enced teachers and equipped classrooms, then they should not be in control. When students struggle to barely meet the states standards on standardized test, and about

50% of my graduating class drops out be-fore their senior year, there has to be more than a ‘reform’ to once again improve our schools, and not to set us up to fail again. I have faith in this idea of reformation but only when the community is given an opportunity to speak out about their stu-dents’ education.

I was always told to be all that I can

be. Foundations Inc. has yet to recognize my fellow peers and I as hopefuls of to-morrow. •

The Union Repnewsletter of the philadelphia student union

“If the E.M.O. running my school cannot provide the students of MLK High School with fully qualified, experienced teachers and equipped classrooms then they should not be in control.”

PSU memberS Perform a Skit aS Part of a feb. 13th action entitled “the love affair iS over,” in which PSU declared that the Sweet-heart dealS between the ShcoolS diStrict & e.m.o.S needS to end. the StUdentS above Play the Part of e.m.o.S who are coUrting the School diStrict for contractS by Singing “ain’t too ProUd to beg.”

Private Companies, Public DollarsOur Fight to Keep Publi c Schools Publi c

by tamieka tomlinSon

1

Spring 2008

SmallWest Philadelphia High has a

long and proud history. In its early years, it was majestic and one of the city’s most popular schools. Now, almost a century later, it is still known, but it is plagued with problems including a low graduation rate, violence and disruption. In addition, the building itself is in a very poor condition. It is the oldest continu-ously used high school in the country that has not had major renovations.

Four years ago, the School District announced that West would be getting a new school. Students from the Phila-delphia Student Union realized that this was an opportunity not just to get a new building, but to improve the way educa-tion happens. PSU got the William Penn Foundation to fund a seven-month pro-cess to bring students, parents, teachers and community members together to cre-ate a plan for the new school.

The community plan has recommen-dations for the new West including:

1. Break the school into four small schools with separate principals on a shared campus. We have done a lot of research that shows that small schools create a community atmosphere where no students slip through the cracks. This re-sults in much higher graduation rates and much lower rates of violence.

2. Make the schools community cen-tered schools. This means that the schools

should be open after school for commu-nity activities and that students should learn by being engaged in the community. It also means that students parents, teach-ers, and community members should form a council that helps make decisions about the schools.

3. Use the small size of the schools to promote interactive and engaging teach-ing. We want there be an educational planning process in the year before the schools open. This will make sure that when the schools open they have plans for how to improve education and that all of the staff is on the same page. This was

done for some of the new Center City schools and we think West students de-serve the same.

The new school will almost certainly be built at the Parkway West/MYA School on 49th and Chestnut. These schools have to move out of that building because of its deterioration.

Now, after finishing the proposal,

presenting it to the School Reform Com-mission (SRC), and organizing a small group of people—called the Sustainability Circle—to make sure we get the school, we are have gotten to a new step.

The School District has now hired architects to design the new school. The design they created did not really support small schools. We have come up with a plan that would only change their design slightly, but would allow it to support the community plan much better. We are now working with other community groups to get the District to support our changes.

This small school plan is very impor-

tant for WPHS. When we visited small schools across the country, we saw that these schools had certain qualities that are needed at West, such as better student/teacher relationships, more attention from teachers, and a family-type environment where everyone know each other. West really needs a monumental change and small schools will do that. •

by lawrence JoneS-mahoney

Students realized that this was an opportunity

not just to get a new building, but to improve the way

education happens.

A New Start for West Philly High

solutions

azeem hill, a PSU member, meetS with tom brady dUring an inveStigative triP to a Small School in the SoUth bronx.

PSU memberS lead a workShoP at the mlk SymPoSiUm aboUt re-claiming edUcation.

Our allies at Geoclan.Com organized a symposium to celebrate and study Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Many members of the Student Union came

out to learn and teach. We learned about the Poor People’s Movement, which was when MLK started organizing for poor people’s rights. He saw that the problem of civil rights for blacks was connected to a larger issue: Human rights for all. What we are taught in school is that Dr. King was born, had a dream, a famous speech, and died. We were excited to learn all of this new information, and wondered why we’d never heard about it before.

The Student Union did a workshop at the symposium about reclaiming education. We talked about the ways that people learn best in comparison to the ways that we are taught in school, and why there is such a difference. We asked: Why do most students hate to learn? And how does this affect us as organizers? The workshop went well.

by rUth kodiSh-eSkind and nyziah miller

2

Hi, my name is Sadae Canty and I’m here

today with the Philadelphia Student Union. We’re here today to address the inequi-table distribution of teachers in the Philadelphia School District. Urban districts like Philadelphia have a hard time getting and keep-ing qualified teachers. Low achieving schools with more poor and minority students have more teachers with less experience. Teacher con-tract negotiations are com-ing up and we feel it is time for some of our issues to be addressed.

Many teachers at my school, West Philadelphia High School, are from Teach for America. Although many Teach for America teachers really want to help, it is dif-ficult as a student to have a bunch of first year teachers who’ve never taught before. On top of that they have a two-year contract that states after two years of teaching they can continue to teach at this school or have the option to leave. The majority of them leave. So as you can see this is only going to get worse.

Another problem that we have is that we need more interactive and engag-ing classes. It’s not okay for a teacher to just write the

work on the board then sit at their desk and wait to the day is over. When we tell them that we want our classes to be more interactive they tell us that they have to follow the core curriculum. But the core curriculum was a Vallas project. School district lead-ers come in and out of our lives, so why should we be stuck with a core curriculum from a previous adminis-trator?

Last year when I attended Simon Gratz high school we had a teacher who left the school in the middle of the school year. So then we got a substi-tute teacher who had a hard time communicating with students. We had many dif-ferent substitutes that year so we didn’t learn anything that year. So because of that we had to keep our grades from the beginning of the year. So when it was time for us to move on to the next grade half of us had to take the class again. If we’d had our regular teacher students would’ve had the chance to improve, instead of fail.

I’m asking for three simple things: only use al-ternate route programs with a high rate of retention, re-

consider the use of the core curriculum, and improve supports and resources to help attract teachers to hard to staff schools. If we don’t change this pattern, then we won’t be able to improve our education, and if we don’t improve our education

then we can’t improve our schools, and if our schools don’t improve then the stu-dents won’t improve. Then what type of future do you think we’re going to have? •

by Sadae canty

Testimony at the School Reform Commission as part of PSU’s Teacher Quality Campaign

Low achieving schools

with more poor and

minority students have

more teachers with

less experience.

Sadae canty SPeakS to the School reform commiSSion on december 19, 2008, dUring PSU’S action, “all we want for chriStmaS iS more qUalified teacherS.”

Qualified Teachers, Successful Schools

khalif dobSon teStifieS aboUt the need for qUalified teacherS.

lawrence JoneS mahoney PaSSeS oUt candy & information to Src memberS, dreSSed aS ‘StUdent Santa.’

3

As a Philadelphia public high school student, I experience firsthand the

effects of inadequate school funding. For one thing, our school is overcrowded. Most classes have about 33 students, and

there is such a shortage of space that we even have classes in the lunchroom, li-brary, and auditorium. From time to time, our teachers cannot give us handouts be-cause either the photocopy machines are not working or the school is experiencing a paper shortage. We have problems keep-ing new teachers. We do not really have any sports facilities other than a gym, and our science “labs” are merely tables with utility hookups. And I go to Masterman. At neighborhood high schools, condi-tions can be even worse. There may not be enough books for all of the students in a class, and the teacher may not even be fully qualified. These schools often lack basic resources and staff. Taking these conditions into consideration, one has to wonder about funding.

It is well known that public school funding in Pennsylvania is unequal and inadequate. The difference in funding be-tween some school districts is astounding – for example, Lower Merion spends over $17,000 per student, while Philadelphia spends about $10,000 per student. In No-vember, a report was released, called “Cost-ing Out the Resources Needed to Meet Pennsylvania’s Public Education Goals” (also known as the “costing-out study”). This report was prepared for Pennsylva-nia’s Board of Education to show how

much funding is needed per student per district, using basic education costs com-bined with other factors such as English language learners and students living in poverty. This study found that the School District of Philadelphia needs about $1 billion in additional funding – almost $5,000 per student.

The costing-out study also had an-other important finding: 474 out of 501

school districts in Pennsylvania are un-der-funded. This is an important find-ing because this means that inadequate school funding is not just a Philadelphia problem, but that it is instead a problem across the state. This includes republicans, democrats, independents, urban districts, suburban districts, rural districts, large dis-tricts, medium-sized districts, and small districts. As a public high school student,

by greg Jordan-detamore

inadequate & unequalschool funding in pennsylvania:

Inadequate school funding is not just a Philadelphia problem.

It is a problem across the state.

Sydney, a PSU member from Sayre high School, advocateS for eqUity among Pa SchoolS.

TALK ABOUT how schools in your neighborhood are struggling because of inadequate resources. o” We don’t have enough textbooks in our classes.” o “Our school is considered a “hard-to-staff” school, and we need adequate resources to attract and keep more qualified teachers.”

TALK ABOUT how PA funds public education. o “Our community doesn’t have the property tax base to raise enough funds for our schools.” o “The current way of funding schools doesn’t tie funding to the number of kids in a district or their actual needs.”

TALK ABOUT supporting the Governor’s budget as the 1st step in a long-term solution. o “The Governor’s budget proposes a 5 percent increase ($291 million) in basic education funding. This is a down-payment on the total amount needed.” o “This ‘down payment’ is part of a six-year phase-in of the total amount needed to close the adequacy gap identified in the costing-out study.” o “This is the best chance we’ve had in decades for an equitable funding formula. Please leave a legacy of more state funding for our schools.

4

Tips for Talking To legislaTors abouT school funding

Meeting with your local Representatives and voicing your opinion about school funding is a simple way to make a big impact. Here are some useful talking points to use when speaking to your elected officials:

PSU memberS demonStrate againSt Privatiza-tion of SchoolS in corrective action 2 (ca2). getting eqUitable School fUnding iS eSSential to thiS fight, becUaSe being UnderfUnded makeS a School more likely to end UP in ca2.

5

At Student Union we practice “Raps.” A “Rap” is a short

speech about an issue that leads to an “ask”, asking a person to come to an event, sign a petition or attend a meeting. Doing outreach is often the hardest part of or-ganizing. We struggle with questions like: How can I get my peers interested in this issue? What can I say to help people understand the root causes at play?

This is one reason why the Student Union has de-cided to create its own radio show. We want to use this

media to reach out to people who may not have heard us be-fore, in a different way than we’ve ever tried before. Starting late spring,On Blast will air twice a month on West Philly’s new community station: 88.1 WPEB. West Philadelphia Ed-ucational Broadcasting (WPEB) is a non-commercial, com-munity radio station that seeks to “uplift falling humanity through communication, the key to unity”.

We know that mainstream media doesn’t have our inter-ests in mind when they broadcast their news, or play com-mercial music. Their content is a product of a series of filters that strain out anything that doesn’t benefit the owners or advertisers. The ideol-ogy that shapes their content matter is based on the interests of the upperclass. The owners of mainstream media use their content to maintain the status quo; their framework comes from a place of sexism, racism, militarization and class oppression. On our show, we will represent the needs and in-terests of young people and the West Philadelphia commu-nity. We will choose subject matter that amplifies the voices of those not being heard, those who are routinely hurt and misrepresented by the dominant media.

In our partnership with Media Mobilizing Project, we’ve acquired the tools to do radio, and learned the basics of audio recording and editing. We’re playing with brand new digital recorders, slinging mics and cables – It’s fun. And it’s deep. We’ve put together stories about racism in schools, about school funding and privatization, the history of youth activ-ism, and how the music industry is hurting hip-hop. And it’s all made by us, young people, students in Philadelphia.

We’ve spent several months in workshops, learning about how to use the equipment, do good interviews, analyze main-stream media, and more. Every Sunday, our group meets over pizza (or cupcakes, or Chinese). When our Seniors graduate, and new members want to learn the skills to do radio, we’ll be able to teach them. •

and a member of Philadelphia Student Union, I find this to be a real shame. This should not just be another conflict between political parties. People all across the state should be angry that students are not fully being invested in. If we are indeed the future, then why are we being treated like just another public service that the government must pay for?

Fortunately, Governor Rendell recently released a budget plan that includes more school funding. This new funding plan is based upon the formula used in the cost-ing-out study, which allocates more funding to school districts with greater needs. His plan involves spending an additional $291 million (a funding increase of about six percent) on education. Obviously, this is not enough; his plan furthermore calls for similar funding increases for the next few years. I, and my fellow members at the Philadelphia Student Union, believe that this is wonder-ful news, as long as the annual increases also fall into place.

In summary, Philadelphia public schools are greatly under-funded, especially when compared with nearby districts, such as Lower Merion. The costing-out study provides a much-awaited look at exactly how under-funded schools are, and how much funding each dis-trict really needs. The time has come for us – students, teachers, parents, and ordinary citi-zens – to tell our representatives in Harrisburg that our schools need more funding, not tomorrow but to-day. Rendell’s plan provides money that, if well spent, could have a dra-matic effect on the lives of hundreds of thousands of students across the state, and their respective com-munities. Educa-tion is often con-sidered one of the key solutions to so-cial problems such as violence and poverty. If we re-ally care about our-selves, our children, and our communities, then we must fight for adequate school funding now. We are going to pay for it on one end or the other – would you rather pay for more prison beds and welfare checks, or better schools which create better communities and a better world? •

by rUth kodiSh-eSkind

Students Making airWaves

On our show, we will

represent the needs and

interests of young people

6

We are working on three main issues for the 07-08 school year at Sayre. First, improv-ing support for ninth graders. Surveys of ninth grade students, and conversations

with 9th graders and teachers have shown that 9th graders are having a difficult time. Many are cutting class, and some are dropping out. PSU is in the process of designing a mentoring program that would pair 11th and 12th grade students with 9th graders to help them make the transition to high school and provide more support to help them feel ownership over their education.

Second, we were successful in getting our library open! Our library finally opened on March 3 after being closed for two years. The library being closed was hurting our educa-tion. We knew that we had to make getting our library open a top priority. We met with the principal and then took our case directly to the School District at a regional budget meeting. We are happy that our efforts helped to get the library open when it did.

Third, building student/staff relationships. Students want to go to class and do their work when they trust their teachers. Teachers can function well when they like their students. Better student/staff relationships is the foundation for a more positive school climate as well as improved teaching and learning. We are working on building support for student/staff committee that can envision activities that students and staff can do together, as well as to engage in dialogue about teaching and learning at Sayre.

Additionally, PSU at Sayre supports the implementation of Schedule C, which would allow for additional planning time for our teachers. We are working to support Schedule C for Fall 2008.

what’s up at

our

The Masterman High School chapter is engaged in a teacher quality campaign.

A group of students, teachers and parents is currently is meeting to create a survey for students and teachers regarding student learning, teaching methods, classroom en-vironment, etc.

This will spark dialogue between stu-dents and teachers about these topics, and what they could be doing to better enhance learning. The final goal is for students and teachers to enjoy a better relationship, and to improve classrooms.

haptersSayre

C

Mastermanby greg Jordan-detamore

(from toP) charleS JohnSon, keith Stinnette, PhoUng ninh & matt JohnSon at the media mo-bilizing ProJect’S annUal barbeqUe.

by nyziah miller & niJmie dzUrinko

7

‘‘Bodine High School is one of the new chapters of the Philadelphia Stu-dent Union. Bodine is working on recruiting more members, and doing

a survey for choosing a chapter campaign. We are discussing how to decrease the stress level in school, since there is a lot of pressure put on magnet school students.

We’re also discussing the budget cuts done to the school and how they impact the students. Recently, Bodine students have been coming to Saturday meetings, and getting involved with our city-wide campaigns.

We started a chapter at CAPA this school year, and our membership is growing quickly. We have three campaigns in progress. One is teacher

evaluations. In order to build better relationships between the students and teachers, and to contribute student opinions to better the classroom climate, CAPA students have created a teacher evaluation survey.

Our second campaign to come is to hold an Art Expo. When brainstorm-ing problems at CAPA, students felt strongly about the tension between ma-jors at school. In order to have better relationships between the majors, to en-courage students to try other arts, and mix arts, and to encourage student-led exhibitions and projects, the Philadelphia Student Union chapter at CAPA hopes to host an Art Expo towards the end of the year. This event will be entirely youth-led, and comprised of art that crosses majors, and breaks ste-reotypes.

Our third idea is to work on helping students as they work through the college application process. CAPA students feel that we need more help and information than we are getting. We are working on a plan for next year’s se-niors to be aided all along the way: From the college search to essay writing, financial aid to the final decision, especially including information about how colleges look at a school like CAPA.

At West Philly High there are big, proactive things popping

in dealing with violence. In January there were a number of fights in the school. Our chapter met to find out what students and staff think and how they are feeling. This was a great meeting. Staff and students came up with ideas and voted on which would be productive. We agreed on some interesting solutions:

One idea is a Teacher and Stu-dent Fun Day which will be a day when teachers and students engage in fun learning situations that build better relationships.

Another solution is peer media-tion, which brings students who are trained to handle conflict to do con-flict resolution. This creates a family environment with less violence, and an overall better school climate.

The next idea that we thought of was a Big Listen. We feel that people don’t really listen to West students, and we want the same attention that a suburban school would get after a tragedy.

But those are only short-term solutions. The long-term solution is to have small schools, which we think would solve the problem of violence at West Philly High. •

by PhUong ninh

Bodine

CAPA

by breonia robinSon

West

by rUth kodiSh-eSkind

“The long-term

solution is to have

small schools, which

we think would

solve the problem

of violence at West

Philly High.”

memberS from all oUr chaPterS get together for oUr annUal SPring retreat, 2007.

8

In Philadelphia right now, seventy schools are, and have been operating under violation of the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law for a number a years, meaning that they haven’t made what is called “Adequate Yearly Progress” on the PSSA which is PA’s standardized test. These schools are in what is called Corrective Action 2. We have been told that the School District proposes to ad-dress the issue by putting forward a ‘menu of options’ for what can happen to these schools. These options are connected to the options regulated by NCLB and in-clude: privatization – which is turning over public schools to private companies that run schools for profit, turning public schools into charter schools, restructuring the schools, or some other large-scale un-specified reform.

Studies both internal and external to the district looked at the performance of Educational Management Organizations (EMO’s), which are outside providers, both for-profit and non-profit. EMO’s are currently running 38 schools in the School District of Philadelphia. All stud-ies (Rand/RFA and the District’s report) point to the same conclusion: there is no

compelling reason based on their record of student achievement to spend the extra resources that go to these schools (between 500 and 700 extra dollars per student). We hope that the District doesn’t plan to solve the same problem they faced five years ago with a method that has been proven to be ineffective.

We don’t yet know exactly what the district plans to do, but we want to support them in reforms that work. At the same time that schools were handed over to

outside providers, the district created the Office of Restructured Schools. Twenty-one low-performing schools were placed under this office. These schools received additional financial resources, extra staff, school based Teacher Leaders in literacy and math, academic coaches, extra profes-sional development, and increased parent involvement. The District-run restruc-tured schools outperformed the schools run by outside providers and continued to show gains even after the Office of Re-structured Schools was closed in 2005. We don’t know why it was closed, but we think it should be re-opened.

The entire country will be look-ing to Philadelphia to see what happens as we try to come into compliance with No Child Left Behind. Let’s use it as an opportunity to work together to push for equalized funding across the state and to institute reforms that are proven to work, and that means keeping public schools public. •

Students in Philadelphia public schools receive thousands of

dollars less—per student, per year—than students in some of

the surrounding suburban school districts. This inequity has

created many schools where students are receiving an education that

is hurting their future. Because school funding is largely based on

property taxes, where you live determines, in large part, what kind

of education you will receive. We believe that this is one of the root

causes why many of our schools are ‘underperforming.’

by the yoUth leaderShiP team of the PhiladelPhia StUdent Union

Statement

Corrective Action IIon

nyziah miller SPeakS againSt Privatization of ca2 SchoolS at a PSU rally on oct. 17th, 2007

PSU member PhUong ninh (Second from the right) StandS with allieS from JobS with JUStice, acorn, temPle SecUrity gUardS, at a demonStration againSt e.m.o.S on feb. 13th, 2008.

9

The FacTs: educaTion ManageMenT organizaTions

• EMO’s have collected over $107 million in contract fees in their first 5 years. That is $107 million of taxpayers’ money.

• EMO’s have failed to turn schools around. Out of the 70 schools in CA2, 14 are run by EMO’s.

• Studies on EMO’s (even the School District’s own report) say the same thing: Based on their performance, there is no strong reason to continue having EMO’s run our schools.

WhaT You can do

The School Reform Commission (SRC) needs to hear your voice! Testifying at an SRC meeting is a good way to speak your mind. You will only be able to speak for about 3 minutes, so write down your speech ahead of time. Also, try to bring 15 cop-ies of your testimony to give to SRC members and staff.

In order to testify, you must register by calling 215-400-4040 by 4:30 p.m. the day before the meeting.

All SRC meetings are on Wednesdays at 1:00 pm, at the School District Building, 440 N. Broad St. Upcoming SRC meeting dates: April 9 & 16 May 14 & 21 June 11 & 18

There is a draft proposal from the School District

that would allow these 28 schools in Corrective Action 2 to be turned over to outside managers (EMO’s). Eight of these schools are already be-ing run by outside managers.

Elementary Schools Bethune Elementary* Edmunds Elementary Hill Elementary Hopkinson Elementary LockeElementary* Ludlow Elementary* Mann Elementary Morrison Elementary Pastorius Elementary* Pennell Elementary Webster Elementary

Middle Schools Clemente Middle Edwin Vare Middle* GeorgePepperMiddle* Harding Middle Meehan Middle Penn Treaty Middle*

High Schools Benjamin Franklin High Fels High Frankford High Gratz High Lincoln High Mastbaum AVTS High M.L.K. High* Northeast High OverbrookHigh South Philadelphia High Swenson High

Bold = Schools that are in West or Southwest Philadelphia

* = Schools that are managed by outside providers (EMO’s)

breonia robinSon rePreSentS PSU at a feb.13th action againSt Privatization. throUghoUt the rally breonia handS off the megaPhone to StUdentS & ParentS from acroSS the city, who give their reaSonS for oPPoSing School takeoverS by edUcation management organizationS.

Background inFo

In 2001, Governor Ridge engineered a state takeover of Philadelphia pub-lic schools. This was not because the schools weren’t performing but because they ran out of money. At that time Eu-gene Hickok was the PA Secretary of Education and went on to become the Under Secretary of Education under George W. Bush. Bush recruited Gov-ernor Ridge to become the director of Homeland Security.

No Child Left Behind calls for sanctions against schools that don’t perform well on state tests, including turning them over to private companies, turning schools into charter schools, and reconstituting schools. Therefore, the same people who engineered the state takeover of Phila-delphia public schools are ideologically committed to privatization of schools. Why? Because they see public education in the U.S. as a potential cash cow - $600 billion dollars of public tax money that can potentially be transferred to private hands.

The Women’s Group of the Philadelphia Student Union is the result of conversations that happened at the fall

retreat in 2007. During the retreat the students decided that having spaces where they could meet according to gender would be beneficial in strengthening their relationships and improving the overall climate of PSU.

The goals of the group are to provide the women of Stu-dent Union with a co-created space where they can explore and address the issues in their lives while broadening the un-

derstanding of sexism as an institution.

We spend time talking about our lives, asking questions of each other, and shar-ing information about resources that we may need. There is also time dedicated to

exploring and discussing issues relevant to the development of healthy relationships across and between genders. The time ded-icated for political education is designed to connect the issues of the women in the group with issues facing women globally.

Meeting separately is meant to give each group the space to address their own issues so that they can communicate and organize more effectively together.

Sexism has undermined many of our movements for social justice when it has remained unchallenged and unac-knowledged. The goal is not to establish men as the enemy but to provide a space where women can safely explore the effects that sexism has on their lives. As young women and men the students in the women and men’s group share a com-mon oppression yet that oppression is shaped in part by their gender, as well as other identities.

All woman-identified members of the Philadelphia Stu-dent Union are welcome to join us every other Saturday di-rectly following the Saturday meeting. All conversations are confidential. •

At PSU we grapple with issues of racism, ageism, and sex-ism everyday. These are barriers that we have to overcome

in order to build an organization that can spark a revolution. As part of this, we started meeting in men’s and women’s sup-port groups.

We named the men’s group BRO: Brothers Respecting Ourselves. This respect for ourselves springs from our thinking about the roles that society sets up for us as men, the expecta-tions that are thrust upon us. We use BRO as a space where we can find support, where we can start breaking out of the expectation that men don’t share our feelings. Students come away with a new realization of their own depths.

We discuss what our views of men are, and how that dif-fers from society’s view. That conversation is expanded to one about what we think of wom-en, and what society says we should think about women. That conversation evolves even further into one about our own experi-ences with women and how we interact with them, and most impor-tantly how we can improve ourselves as men, and how we can improve how we treat women.

But none of us would get as much out of these conversa-tions as we do now if the group was lacking the male role mod-els it has. The facilitators of the group are men that we can look up to and talk to freely. They offer us the support that so many men miss growing up, and all of us are better for it. •

T h e Wo m e n ’ s G r o u p & M e n ’ s G r o u p m e et o n a lt e r nat i n g

Sat u r days at 4:30 p m .

We discuss what our

view of a man is, and

how that differs from

society’s view.

The goal is to provide

a space where women

can safely explore

the effect that sexism

has on their lives.

by dan JoneS

by kim mUrray

Demolishing Sexism, Building Support

10

we workin on changin the world

we workin onchangin ppls life

we workin onpolitical campaigns

we workin on lettin ya know

kno that “the man”can’t run this show

we workin onmakin dreams come true

we workin onwinnin with PSU

You have a voice So step up

Your school is being soldSo speak up

Now is the timeFor you to shine

Become part of the Movement

We know that youCan do it

All you have to doIs show your interestYour mind isn’t worthNo amount of money

Support your education

How come the s at the beginning of student is about to have a bar through itHow come every capital q I ask gets a circle with a line where the oppressor drew itHow come we just do itWith blood on our feetAnd how come when kids talk about throwin’ heatThey mean firearmsNot baseball in front of their momsOr Super Mario powerups like back in their dormRooms, and we can get larger if we chill with the shroomsBut it’ll take a whole lot more than a cape to get us higher than the moonWhere we can reflect on our son’s lightSend it down to help with our plightThen let him rise like the end of nightBut to lift him up thereWe gotta fight bite srape clawEven twist arms and pull hairDraw a line in the sand and dareThen when they cross itLift our fists in the air as if to sayRock beats scissors The fact that we care beats the apathy that you deliverOn a silver platterOr is it glass because it doesn’t last under heatBut just cuts us deep enough to be unseenAnd I hope time doesn’t heal all woundsBecause we need to feel the cold steel and hot glassAnd we don’t need to get passed the pastBut use it as a foundation for a future to lastBuild a skyscraper movementBecause no matter how you cut it the sky’s just srapin’ the surfaceChange just doesn’t happen you gotta do it on purposeMinds, students, people left for deathFamilies cleftThese problems don’t go away without a strike deftBut I just write the wrongs so you can see what’s left

by candace carter by dan JoneS

by candace carter

poems

He gave me reason 2 believe that we were always meant 2 b. But now i see he was wrong. i kno i onli hurt myself by tryin to hurt u. But now ur gone nd i dont kno wat 2 do. there were so many things i shoulda sed but i was scared 2 let u kno. So you had 2 le me go. Ma heart was broke nd tears ran down ma face. But now i see i’ve been replaced. She sed she’ll luv u till death do yall part. But wat about ma heart? I luved u 2 but u chose 2 b wit her. So i was thinkin i should move on nd jus let u go. I kno i’m gonna miss u but i can’t let it show. I wonder do you ever think of e? If u still care? If u luv me like u sed u do den y u not here? I neva told u i luved u ng now its 2 late. But if we eva meet again i’ll kno 4 sure its fate...

I’ve been used, abused, nd now im jus confused. I thought i luved him till i realized...if i stay wit someone who makes me cry, i’ll end up killin all the luv i hav inside. I can’t hope to see the sun if i don’t open my eyes. I’m not gonna let real luv pass me by...I’m sayin this now b/c im jus thinkin mayb i should move on. Instead of sittin around torn. I’ve waited all my life 4 someone like him but now im thinking...is this wat i really want?

by cherelle reed

11

The Student Union believes that “re-claiming our education” is crucial

in this fight to change our public school system. Everyday students are going into classes not learning, sitting in their seats and doing worksheets. Interactive learn-ing and hands-on work is dwindling as everything becomes geared toward test preparation. Therefore, PSU has created a space to combat the growing injustices in public education; a place where students can come not only to do their work, but to enrich their education. From across the city, students are coming together to receive tutoring or help tutor someone else. Adults are also volunteering their time to help . Everyone at the Student Union is working diligently in this effort to reclaim education!

ACADEMIC SUPPORTEvery Saturday at 1 1am

At the PSU Office, 5011 Baltimore Ave.

The Philadelphia Student Union exists to build the power of young people to demand a high quality education in the Philadelphia public school system. We are a youth-led organization and we make positive changes in the short term by learn-ing how to organize to build power. We also work to-ward becoming life-long learners and leaders who can bring diverse groups of people together to ad-dress the problems that our communities face.

Phi ladelphia Student Union

5011 Baltimore Ave.Philadelphia, PA 19143

Telephone: (215) 471-5970Fax: (215) 471-5970

www.myspace.com/psu4uFacebook group: The Philadelphia Student Union

www.phillystudentunion.org

Philadelphia Student Union5011 Baltimore Ave.

Philadelphia, PA 19143