A national alliance covering 18 states will converge on Washington, D.C. on September 20th to send a message that for the need for sustainable, community-driven school reform, not shuttering public schools and brokering them to private operators. Thousands are expected to march and sit-in at the U.S. Department of Education where they will seek an audience with President Barack Obama and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

Those community organizations, student groups, parents and teachers are from several cities including Chicago, Detroit, Oakland, Los Angeles, and Newark to name a few. Many of these cities have filed Title VI civil rights complaints against their school districts regarding the racial impact of school closings, turnarounds, phase-outs, co-locations and other drastic actions. These organizations have pushed the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights to open investigations at schools in New York, Boston, Washington, D.C., Wichita, KS, Oakland and Chicago. “Closing schools destroys communities and the research backs up what we already know. It doesn’t work. It is time tested, and flawed,” said a teacher based in New York. The research backs up this claim. Since 2002 in Chicago, only 18 percent of the schools that have replaced closed schools are high performing. Of that 18 percent, half are selected enrollment. Half of the replacement schools are Level 3, CPS’ lowest rating (Chicago Catalyst, Dec. 7th, 2011).

Due to pressure from this alliance, the Dept. of Education has agreed to National Grassroots Impact Tours in many cities throughout the U.S. this fall, culminating in a federal hearing on these issues in January. “We know this is a violation of our civil rights,” said Diamond McCullough, a high school junior from Chicago. “My high school was sabotaged by CPS. Last year, we had to take art online. CPS cut our most successful programs, and then watched us struggle. We are riding to D.C. to let America know. I am supposed to be preparing for my ACT test and I am fighting for my educational life.”