Hungry for a Better Education hungerstrike@riseup.net June 1, 2009 Board Members García, Flores-Aguilar, and Vladovic Los Angeles Unified School District 333 South Beaudry Avenue, 24th Floor Los Angeles, CA 90017 monica.garcia@lausd.net yolie.flores.aguilar@lausd.net richard.vladovic@lausd.net Dear Board Members Garcia, Flores-Aguilar, and Vladovic: On behalf of the teachers and community members currently on day six of the Hungry for a Better Education fast, we write to you today to ask for your support. We have counted on it before and you have been there for us in the past. You have been there to push for A-G classes, small schools, decentralizing LAUSD, and sending QEIA funds to the right schools. But now when the need is greatest, you have abandoned the fight for our children and instead have given in to fear and hopelessness. This budget crisis is enormous; none of us doubt that. However, there can also be no doubt that deeper and deeper cuts will not be enough to solve it. We need to find new sources of funds and that means fighting against those in power who oppose making sacrifices themselves and who desire to take the politically easiest solution: taking from the most vulnerable, our children. But instead of unifying us in this fight to defend public education you have chosen to unnecessarily cut our children’s classrooms. This choice has led some to organize for your recall, when together we should be organizing for full funding of education. We have begun this hunger strike to remind you of your purpose and your obligation to the communities that gave you your office. It is your responsibility to stand up for our children. Cesar Chavez once said that to teach our children what it means to be fully man or woman requires each of us to use our lives to show the way. We have begun this hunger strike to demonstrate what that means through our personal sacrifice. It is our hope that you will join us by taking action to stop class size increases and rescind the layoff notices. We urge you to spend whatever stimulus money is needed to stop any class size increases and rescind all layoff notices to teachers. Beyond that, we urge you to abandon the impossible task of saving our schools by cutting our classrooms. We urge you to lead us in the struggle to find new sources of funds so that our children are among the last to suffer under this economic crisis and not among the first. We look forward to your leadership. Respectfully, The participants in the Hungry for a Better Education fast