Tell teachers' retirement fund to DIVEST from standardized testing companies

[yurbud]

If you aren't a teacher, but know someone who is, please forward this to them.

As the teachers rebellion against standardized testing grows, it's time to flex our real muscle: tell the teachers' retirement system to take our money OUT of standardized testing companies.

The retirement fund just recently set a precedent by divesting from gun companies, but corporate backed education reform is threatening the very existence of public education by buying politicians and policies that benefit Wall Street at the expense of our kids.

We need to make sure they aren't using our money to kill our jobs and our schools. I'm providing contact information for California, but if you post other states in the comments, I'll be glad to add that to the post itself in updates.

In California, you can contact CALSTRS, our retirement system at http://www.calstrs.com/contact-us
800-228-5453 • 916-414-5040 (Fax)
P. O. Box 15275
Sacramento, CA 95851-0275

Feel free to use or modify this brief message:

As a member of CalSTRS, I ask that since you have divested from companies whose guns kill students and teachers, you also divest from the corporations pushing education "reform" that are killing public education so they can cannibalize the corpse.

Start with those pushing endless repetitive high stakes testing, like Pearson, ETS, and McGraw Hill.

As an educator, I do not want to invest in businesses that corrupt our public education policy for the financial gain of a few.

I look forward to hearing your plan of action on this.

You can also tell your union to demand that CalSTRS divest from corporate education reform companies, starting with testing companies. Just change the message slightly:

As a member of CFT (or CTA) I ask that since CalSTRS has divested from companies whose guns kill students and teachers, I ask that you direct CalSTRS to also divest from the corporations pushing education "reform" that are killing public education so they can cannibalize the corpse.

Start with those pushing endless repetitive high stakes testing, like Pearson, ETS, and McGraw Hill.

As an educator, I do not want to invest in businesses that corrupt our public education policy for the financial gain of a few.

I look forward to hearing your plan of action on this.

In the AFT, you can contact:

Gary Ravani
K-12 Council President
[e-mail]
Administrative Office
California Federation of Teachers
2550 North Hollywood Way, Suite 400
Burbank, CA 91505
818-843-8226, Fax [phone]

If you are in CFT but not a K-12 teacher, contact:

Joshua Pechthalt, President
[e-mail]

In the CTA:

President Dean Vogel
E-mail: [e-mail]
P.O. Box 921
1705 Murchison Drive
Burlingame, CA 94011-0921
Phone: [phone]
FAX: [phone]

Check back later for a proposal on what we could do WITHOUT testing companies that would also save states a lot of money.

http://equalpayforequalwork.blogspot.com/2013/02/tell-teachers-retirement-fund-to-divest.html

[yurbud]

1. former Ass't Ed Sec Diane Ravitch posted this to her blog LINK

http://dianeravitch.net/2013/02/25/divest-now-from-testing-companies/