Improbable Scholars: the Rebirth of a Great American School System and a Strategy for America’s Schools

This book review was shared by Jan Resseger, Minister for Public Education of the United Church of Christ Justice and Witness Ministries and chair of the National Council of Churches Public Education and Literacy committee.

I was up late last night reading Berkeley professor, David Kirp’s new book about school reform in Union City, New Jersey: Improbable Scholars: the Rebirth of a Great American School System and a Strategy for America’s Schools (Oxford University Press, 2013).  “Union City ranks sixty-first nationwide in its concentrated poverty…. It’s also the nation’s most crowded municipality.”  Virtually all students are Latino-Latina, many recent arrivals and a sizeable percentage English language learners.  And yet, teachers, administrators, and students are all working hard—and strategically. Test scores reflect a transformation in the district in recent years.

Kirp confronts the public education rhetoric war directly.  He spent a year in Union City immersed in classrooms and the way the district works, and he shows us a school system where the emphasis is on improving instruction, connecting with and supporting each student, experimenting with bilingual education, supporting teachers—many of whom grew up in this school district, and focusing way beyond the requirements of the New Jersey ASK standardized test.  An academic, Kirp also presents the research that supports reforms being implemented in Union City.

An important piece of the puzzle Kirp describes is the universal pre-school New Jersey has been providing for some time in its 31 Abbott districts, the poorest school districts in the state, where opportunity to learn including universal preschool was instituted as part of the remedy in Abbott v. Burke, probably the nation’s longest running and most successful school finance litigation.  (In recent years there has been pressure at the state level to reduce investment in the Abbott districts, a potential threat to the progress this book describes.)

This is an inspiring book and one of the most hopeful books I’ve read in a long, long time.  While it is an entirely secular book, it surely is appropriate reading for the Easter season.  Kirp emphatically rejects the hubris embedded in today’s technocratic school reform where wealthy theorists are content to experiment with shattering neighborhoods and undermining the humanity of committed teachers with econometric Value Added Metric rankings based on students’ standardized test scores, VAM rankings that have sometimes been published in the newspaper.  This is a book about people working every day to build human connections in a place where the public schools have, quite recently, become the heart of the community.

I hope everybody will read this book.  Wouldn’t it be amazing if it became a best seller? Many of the communions of the National Council of Churches are committed to justice in public education, with special attention to expanding access to quality education for the children our society has too often left out.  This is part of the heritage of the Council, whose Governing Board spoke prophetically in a 2010 pastoral letter, An alternative Vision for Public Education: “We… affirm that our society’s provision of public education—publicly funded, universally available, and accountable to the public—while imperfect, is essential for ensuring that all children are served. As a people called to love our neighbors as ourselves, we look for the optimal way to balance the needs of each particular child and family with the need to create a system that secures the rights and addresses the needs of all children.”

If you’ve read it or you want to, comment on the blog to start a discussion, or tweet us @NCCEndPoverty

–Jan

Building Opportunity Through Affordable Housing for All: Fighting Poverty with Faith National Event 2012

Every year, the National Council of Churches joins with the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, Catholic Charities, the Islamic Society of North America, and dozens of other faith-based organizations to sponsor the Fighting Poverty with Faith mobilization. For 2012, the mobilization theme was “Building Opportunity through Affordable Housing for All.”

Leaders from national faith-based organizations held an interfaith house blessing and press conference at a mixed income housing development called The SeVerna, in Washington, DC. At the SeVerna, no one pays more than one third of their income on housing. The driving force behind the establishment of The SeVerna were leaders from the Bible Way church. At the press conference, national faith leaders called on the U.S. Congress to create more affordable housing like The SeVerna. Congress can make it happen by making good on their 2008 promise to help local agencies create affordable housing by giving $1 billion in federal dollars to the National Housing Trust Fund. Click here to add your voice by sending a message to Congress.

Check out the photo and video footage from the event.

Bible Way church Elder Henry Marshall offers a prayer before the beginning of the Fighting Poverty with Faith 2012 National Event and Press Conference.

Ms. Yvonne Williams shares some of the history of The SeVerna and neighboring affordable housing developments, all of which Bible Way church was instrumental in establishing.
“”We are a church & we have built more than 350 units of housing. It’s not too ‘pie in the sky’ a dream to create opportunities. You can make a difference.”

“The Biblical vision of wholeness (shalom) includes a world in which there is enough for everyone. As people of faith who are committed to this vision of wholeness, we are deeply concerned about so many of God’s people who struggle to find a dignified and affordable place to call home. We need courageous compassion in our churches’ ministries and in the public policies that affect everyone’s ability to live in a community that embodies shalom. We need our Congress to help make this happen by making good on their unfulfilled promise to fund the National Housing Trust Fund.”   ~Rev. Dr. Sharon Watkins of the Christian Church, Disciples of Christ and Vice President at Large of the National Council of Churches

(left to right) Rev. Dr. Sharon Watkins of the Christian Church -Disciples of Christ and Vice President at Large of the NCC, Dr. Sayyid M. Syeed of the Islamic Society of North America, and Rabbi Steve Gutow emerge from an interfaith visit and house blessing at the home of The SeVerna resident and Fighting Poverty with Faith press conference speaker Ms. Deborah Washington.

Join us for a Food Justice Webinar Thursday March 15 at 1:00pm ET

Last week, I was fortunate to have been invited to fast for six days with farmworkers seeking a decent wage and livable working conditions. It is a scandal that the very workers who pick 80 percent of the tomatoes consumed in the United States often have difficulty feeding their own families.

Please join World Council of Churches North American president Rev. Bernice Powell Jackson and me, along with Fast for Fair Food organizers Rev. Noelle Damico of the Presbyterian Hunger Program and Gerardo Silva of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, for an opportunity to interact live and for free on a webinar.

“From Harvest to Home: Farmworkers, Food Justice, and Hunger.”

March 15th – Thursday afternoon – 1:00pm EST

We’ll share information about the fast and ways you can get involved in next steps during the first half hour, then open up the second half hour to answer your questions.

Click here to register for the webinar.

Please register early, as space is limited. Members of the press are welcome for this webinar. Please spread the word.

I look forward to seeing you online!

Grace and Peace,

Michael Livingston

Director, National Council of Churches Poverty Initiative

Fast for Fair Food Lenten Reflection by Bernice Powell Jackson of the World Council of Churches

“As we begin the season of Lent…

…it’s easy in our increasingly secular world to ignore it or in the world of superficial piety to privatize it. But the word from God spoken by the prophet Isaiah brings a different message. Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? In fact, God warns those who are fasting and tearing their clothes to shreds that God is not impressed with all that. Only when the people stop oppressing their workers, blaming each other for their problems and breaking relationships within their own families will God respond to their prayers.

It’s not a difficult jump to get from Isaiah to the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and Publix. A few weeks ago Trader Joe’s signed an agreement with CIW, only a few days before opening its first Florida store. So it’s still about Publix. Now, don’t get me wrong, I like my Publix store. I like the politeness of its workers. I like the cleanliness of the stores and the variety of the items they stock. I like their Buy One, Get One Free sales.

What I don’t like is the arrogance of their leadership (they never responded to our letter and thousands of dollars of cash register receipts) and their unwillingness to even sit down and talk with the CIW leaders. In every situation that the workers of CIW have encountered for a decade now, when they are able to sit down and talk with the heads of fast food conglomerates, tomato grower associations and food supply companies, they were able to see each other’s humanity and dignity and to find a place of agreement. Yet Publix leadership refuses to sit down or to talk, which only says to me they know that theirs is a morally indefensible position and they can’t look the workers in the eye.

In my sermons over the past months, I have focused on the difference between chronos time and kairos time. The old ways of chronos time are quickly disappearing and kairos time, God’s time, is upon us. The kin-dom is at hand. We can see that as old marriage inequality laws fall to the wayside, as old religious understandings of impurity disappear, as old oppressive political regimes and laws melt away. The unwillingness of Publix to sign with the CIW is the last vestige of the old agricultural order in the South which relied on slave labor and then share-cropping and segregation to support it. This too shall pass. The question for them is do they wish to be on the side of justice or oppression, the past or the future.

During the week of March 5-10 many of the leaders and workers of the CIW will be on a fast at the Publix headquarters in Lakeland. We are invited to join them throughout the week and on Saturday, when they end the fast. I will join them to lead their religious vigil the evening of Wednesday, March 7.

Rev. Bernice Powell Jackson of the First United Church of Tampa, and President of the World Council of Churches in North America since 2004.

I invite you to join me there or join us in prayer that evening.

Perhaps our Lenten discipline this year might be to pray every day that the hearts of the leaders of Publix might be softened, that they might sit down with CIW and sign an agreement which gives the workers just one penny per pound more for their labor. Remember Isaiah…

In Peace and Love,

Pastor Bernice

Princess and the Pea, Publix and the Penny

Media covering the Fair Food Fast ask us, “How do you respond to Publix’s offer to “Put the penny in the cost and we’ll gladly pay it”? Publix’s statement is that they respond to market forces, and: “our policy is not to get involved in labor disputes.”

Just a penny per pound more would make all the difference in farmworkers' lives.

The extraordinary change in the relationship between growers and farmers at this moment is not a labor dispute. Over 90 percent of the Florida tomato growers and the Coalition of Immokolee Workers (CIW) have already agreed upon a Fair Food Code of Conduct. The corporations that have signed on have agreed to pay the Fair Food Premium, which is a small price increase that is designed to give the workers a penny wage increase for every pound of tomatoes they pick.

Ask Publix CEO Ed Crenshaw to meet with the farmworkers and sign the Fair Food Agreement.

Greg Asbed, staff with the CIW likens the Fair Food Premium to the reverse of the Princess and the Pea story. The Princess feels discomfort at the placement of a pea at the bottom of stack of many mattresses, whereas Publix could sleep soundly and never notice the discomfort of a little penny. Meanwhile, farmworkers will experience significant gain from the expenditure of a penny a pound on the part of the corporation. Yet Publix refuses to talk to the farmworkers or even consider signing the agreement. By refusing, Publix undermines the efforts of the farmworkers to labor in environments free of abuses that have characterized the system for over three decades. Publix provides an alternative, a shelter for growers that have not signed the agreement. By so doing, they participate in practices that are unjust and immoral.

As the largest corporation in Florida, Publix exerts enormous influence in the food industry. Publix has the opportunity now be a part of the healthy changes that are taking place in the industry. Or, Publix can tacitly support the continuation of a system that does not recognize the humanity of the men and women who pick the tomatoes it sells in groceries stores it lauds as offering a “pleasurable shopping experience.”

How can we enjoy buying goods when we know the farmworkers who pick them are underpaid and overworked, who labor without pension and health benefits and when some of them may have been subjected to forced labor? The scriptures of the Old and the New Testament are clear in calling for justice for the worker and the creation of each one of us in the image of God.  We stand with farmworkers as they strive for a new day in fields and a future for their children in a “Fair Food” universe.

Ask Publix CEO Ed Crenshaw to meet with the farmworkers and sign the Fair Food Agreement.

Until tomorrow,

Michael Livingston

Director, National Council of Churches Poverty Initiative

Ed Crenshaw, it’s time.

Rev. Livingston, with representatives from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and the Student Farmworker Alliance, lights a candle to begin prayers for a New Day to dawn for worker justice, when Publix signs the Fair Food Agreement.

Ed Crenshaw won’t talk to farmworkers. He’s the CEO of Publix, the largest grocery store chain in the Southeast. The Coalition of Immokolee Workers has had remarkable success in a long struggle for justice for farmworkers. Yum Brands (2005), McDonalds (2007), Burger King (2008), Subway (2008), Whole Foods (2008), Aramark (2010), and most recently Trader Joe’s (2011), are among ten corporations that have signed on to participate in the Fair Food Campaign.

Click here to sign a petition to Ed Crenshaw, asking him to meet with farmworkers and sign the Fair Food Agreement.

The Fair Food Campaign asks corporations to:

• increase the wages of the workers
• comply with a Code of Conduct that includes zero tolerance for forced labor and systemic child labor
• enable worker to worker education sessions to ensure workers know their new rights
• allow a worker-triggered complaint mechanism
• maintain a system of health and safety volunteers on every farm to ensure that workers have a voice in their working conditions
• make some specific and concrete changes in working conditions that ensure fair compensation
• and provide for the simple comfort of shade and rest during extremely hot work days.

It’s day one of six days of fasting with farmworkers and their supporters at the corporate headquarters of Publix in Lakeland, FL. I’m already impressed with the quiet dignity of workers with whom I cannot communicate using the English I speak or the Spanish they speak. Yet we stand together under the same bright sun and our very presence alongside a busy thoroughfare, announces a firm commitment to seek justice for a workforce whose humanity has been ignored by a system of labor that is fundamentally unjust.

The farmworkers and holding signs that say “You’re human and so am I,” and “I fast today so that my children won’t be hungry tomorrow.” A typical farmworker must pick about 150-160 buckets of tomatoes a day, each bucket weighing about 32 pounds. They don’t have health plans, and often make less than minimum wage. They can sometimes arrive at 4:00a.m. and wait for hours to be hired for the day–hours for which they are not paid, and time spent away from their families. 

I like a thick slice of tomato on my burger; but at what price?  Ed Crenshaw, sit down and talk to farmworkers.  It’s time.

Click here to sign a petition to Ed Crenshaw, asking him to meet with farmworkers and sign the Fair Food Agreement.

Grace and Peace,

Michael Livingston

Director, National Council of Churches Poverty Initiative

Work and Pray for a Faithful Budget

An interfaith coalition has been holding daily prayer vigils since July 11th to protect federal programs that serve people living in poverty. This coalition has formed the “Faithful Budget” campaign. Click here for worship, action, and news clip resources from the campaign.

Faith leaders met with President Obama to ask him to protect “the least of these” (Mt 25) in the budget and deficit debates leading up to the debt ceiling deal. The coalition brought religious leaders to Capitol Hill on July 26 to meet with the offices of Congressional leadership.

On July 28, it became clear we had to bring our prayers to the heart of the Capitol. Eleven faith leaders prayed there until they were forcefully removed and arrested.

Watch a video about our campaign here:

Sign our petition here.