ENI ACCOMPLISHMENTS
FEBRUARY 2003
California threatened to lay off 30,000 teachers at the same time prison guards received a 7% raise. To change this type of policy a group of teachers, students, parents and community members formed Education Not Incarceration (ENI). MAY 8, 2003 thousands of students rallied at the Capitol in Sacramento, California, and visited offices of every Senator and Assembly person, as well as the Governor, to deliver the message that California should be investing in education, not cages for our youth. Teachers prepared their students with curriculum available at www.ednotinc.org. This curriculum has since been endorsed by the California Teachers Association.
JULY 2003
ENI led the National Education Association Representative Assembly (NEA RA) of nearly 10,000 delegates representing 2.8 million members to pass New Business Item (NBI) #41, calling for NEA to become active, working for the issues of Education Not Incarceration.
NOVEMBER 2003
ENI kicked off the 2003-2004 school year with Teach-ins in 30 schools (reaching about 2,000 students). The teach-ins culminated in a statewide day of action with rallies in Los Angeles, Oakland, and San Francisco, addressing a variety of issues and spotlighted the immense problems facing our youth due to lack of adequate resources and support systems, while prison budgets were increasing.
JANUARY 2004
ENI held a community forum attended by over 100 community members on the Governor’s Budget and potential school closures in Oakland. We used the momentum from this forum to organize a larger event on May Day, a Teach In & Speak out at Oakland Technical High School. Over 200 community members attended this day-long event. Workshops explored the link between an increase in spending on prisons and the decrease on education, young people created graffiti art and their own hip hop youth performance; spoke out to elected officials including City Council, School Board members and State Assemblyman.
JULY 2004
ENI and the National Education Association(NEA) Peace and Justice Caucus sponsored the pre-conference day, with workshops, presentations and strategy meetings. Professor Angela Davis spoke to over 1,000 delegates at the Representative Assembly. Delegates passed NBI #46 calling for the NEA to fund the development of cultural training programs for teachers. NEA printed articles in “The NEA Today”, a publication that distributed to 2.8 million members on the topic of education not incarceration.
SUMMER 2004
ENI planned a community event “Rolling Thunder” of 1,000 people, whereby Senator Perata committed to the development of a pilot program where money would be diverted from incarcerating parolees for technical violations, toward mentorship programs for teachers working in low-income elementary schools.
FALL 2004
ENI helped to organize a campaign to oppose ballot measures that focused on spending more funds on police. Our goal was to put forward a media message, that challenged the notion that police and prisons are making our communities safer. We were able to build an ongoing community coalition that lobbied City Council to support opportunities for our community, rather than criminalizing our youth. The major success of this coalition was to halt an initiative that would criminalize Oakland’s youth for simply viewing Oakland’s “sideshows”.
SPRING 2005
ENI helped coordinate the Coalition to Defend and Improve Public Education with community and town hall meetings, a rally of over 600 people to demand local control of Oakland schools and to stop school closures of low-income communities. In honor of the 50 year anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, which promised equal public education for all, we supported a day of student walkouts and teach-ins.
JUNE-JULY 2005
ENI sponsored a second conference to the NEA RA. The conference featured a panel with United Farmworkers leader Dolores Huerta, Dorsey Nunn and Professor Ruthie Gilmore. ENI assisted NEA to pass motions to oppose prosecuting youth as adult; to support the education of prisoners; to oppose excessive and inequitable discipline policies; to educate NEA members to provide all students an “opportunity to learn”; to build a grassroots campaign to transform the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” law); to close the infamous California Youth Authority.
FALL 2005
ENI initiated our first ongoing campaign. This campaign’s initial intention was to see how resources within our school system could be reallocated from policing to support programs. As we began interviewing students and educators, we recognized a much deeper issue, fundamental to reshaping the education system to truly respond to the needs of students. We found that students are being pushed out of our education system and into prison system at alarming rates. We spent majority of the year focused at McClymonds Educational Complex in a predominately low-income African American community. We conducted nearly 100 one-on-one interviews with students, educators and parents.
SPRING 2006
We launched our campaign to stop “pushouts” with two public events. The second one, “Youth Empowerment Day”, featured youth performers and speakers, as well as Professor Lennox Hinds, Barbara Becnel, Camila Chavez and R&B/Pop star Raz B. This event received significant support, including from the Chairperson of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors and the Oakland City Council.
JUNE/JULY 2006
ENI held our third conference to the NEA RA. This conference, featured Elaine Brown, and the NEA workshop on Education Not Incarceration. The following week of organizing proved to be the most successful week of organizing for Education Not Incarceration to date. We received a commitment from NEA President Reg Weaver to create a task force to address the issue of “pushouts” on a national level. We also received a commitment from NEA Executive Director John Wilson to have the NEA plan a Summit on ending the policy of taking away someone’s education (i.e. suspensions and expulsions) as a means of discipline. Further, we were able to pass several motions around issues ranging from providing support for educating the children of prisoners, to opposing the narrowing of curriculum to adhere to high stakes testing. Finally, we developed a packet on “Starting an Education Not Incarceration Chapter in Your Community” and were able to hold over 50 sessions with delegates from around the country who we are currently helping to start affiliate Education Not Incarceration chapters.
SUMMER AND FALL 2006
ENI opened our national office in Oakland, CA. We initiated seven chapters of ENI in Oakland, Santa Rosa, Redwood City, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Our Santa Rosa chapter stopped the expulsion of a thirteen year old girl and in the process built a relationship with the Santa Rosa City School Board.