National Day of Action to Defend Public Education

National Day of Action to Defend Public Education

National Day of Action to Defend Public Education

On October 7, tens of thousands of students, faculty and supporters will take part in coordinated actions to defend public education.

Facebook
Twitter
Email
Flipboard
Pocket

Early last spring, students in California sparked a movement that has grown dramatically over the past year propelled by increasingly savage cuts to state education budgets nationwide. Thousands organized and participated in the March 4, 2010, National Day of Action to Defend Public Education events. The protests were most active in California, as this video shows, but took place in thirty-two other states as well.

It’s clear that the fight has only just begun. Public universities throughout the country are raising tuition costs and seeking private investors. Budget cuts, tuition hikes, school closings and right-wing reforms are hitting working families the hardest, especially in communities of color.

As we hurtle back to the future, the educational disparities between rich and poor are growing wider and public schools are swiftly being re-segregated, with schools serving poor students starved of resources, and forced to track their pupils into non-academic, dead-end programs.

But young people aren’t taking the narrowing of their opportunities lying down—This Thursday, October 7, tens of thousands of students, faculty and supporters will take part in coordinated actions as part of the National Day of Action to Defend Public Education. With multiple actions planned in at least thirty-three states currently, Thursday’s protests are meant to pick up the momentum from last March and keep the issue in people’s minds.

In Athens, GA, fun-loving activists are staging a “celebration of education” on North Campus in front of the Administration building at noon with music, dancing, flyering, chanting, and "a bunch of other cool stuff." In San Diego, there’ll be a walkout of San Diego City College Campus and at UCSD, SDSU and at secondary schools, followed by a downtown rally and march in the evening. In Hunstville, Texas, a protest on the mall will offer a large sheet of butcher paper for students, alum, and faculty to note the total of their student debt.

Find an event near you and show your solidarity with students under siege this Thursday.

We cannot back down

We now confront a second Trump presidency.

There’s not a moment to lose. We must harness our fears, our grief, and yes, our anger, to resist the dangerous policies Donald Trump will unleash on our country. We rededicate ourselves to our role as journalists and writers of principle and conscience.

Today, we also steel ourselves for the fight ahead. It will demand a fearless spirit, an informed mind, wise analysis, and humane resistance. We face the enactment of Project 2025, a far-right supreme court, political authoritarianism, increasing inequality and record homelessness, a looming climate crisis, and conflicts abroad. The Nation will expose and propose, nurture investigative reporting, and stand together as a community to keep hope and possibility alive. The Nation’s work will continue—as it has in good and not-so-good times—to develop alternative ideas and visions, to deepen our mission of truth-telling and deep reporting, and to further solidarity in a nation divided.

Armed with a remarkable 160 years of bold, independent journalism, our mandate today remains the same as when abolitionists first founded The Nation—to uphold the principles of democracy and freedom, serve as a beacon through the darkest days of resistance, and to envision and struggle for a brighter future.

The day is dark, the forces arrayed are tenacious, but as the late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

I urge you to stand with The Nation and donate today.

Onwards,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation

Ad Policy
x