Dear Board Members Garcia, Flores-Aguilar, and Vladovic: 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, sending QEIA funds to schools with the greatest need. But now when the need is greatest, you have chosen not to fight for our children and instead you have given in to fear and hopelessness. This budget crisis is enormous, none of us doubt that. It is clearly too large, in fact, to balance by cutting and cutting. We need to find new sources of funds and that means fighting against those who would choose the politically easiest path to balance the budget: taking from the most vulnerable, our children. But instead of leading this fight, your choice to unnecessarily cut our children’s classrooms has distracted and divided us, leading even to calls for your recall. 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 begin this hunger strike to demonstrate what that means through our personal sacrifice. It is our hope that you will join us by taking action. 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 and 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. Sincerely, The participants in the Hungry for a Better Education fast
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Jun 1, 2009, 2:55:49 pm
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