I hope that everybody is enjoying their summer so far.  Whether you have been traveling, laying on the beach, working at another job, or just enjoying some extra family time it can be nice to have a few weeks away from the stresses of your day job.  With that idea in mind, while we are away from school the powers that be continue to look for new ways to disrespect and destroy our profession.  At the same time we have a growing number of friends looking to fight back against those powers that be.  Naturally those allies of ours will need as much help as they can get and we should be willing to provide just that.  If you are new to following this fight… or if you are not new but find the sheer volume of it overwhelming, don’t worry, thepjsta.org is here to help!

Beginning this summer, as our blog celebrates it’s first anniversary and enters it’s second year of existence, we will be looking for ways to improve how this site can benefit our members.  One of those ways will be through two new special series that we will be writing.  The purpose of these series, which will pop up throughout the year, will be to educate you on who are your friends and who are your enemies.  By this we mean who are the forces fighting to protect public education and who are the forces attempting to destroy it.  These two series will be appropriately titled, “Know Your Friends” (KYF) and “Know Your Enemies” (KYE).  We will cover people and organizations such as Bill Gates, Diane Ravitch, Michelle Rhee, Barack Obama, Arnie Duncan, Karen Lewis, Corey Booker, Teach for America, Badass Teachers Association, and many, many more.

Some of you may be surprised at who is a friend of public ed and who is not.  Understand that the lines drawn over public ed do not correlate with political party lines.  They often make for strange bed fellows as well.  However, going forward, it is essential for us to educate ourselves, know the issues, stand up for ourselves, attend rallies, engage in civil disobedience when necessary, and make our voices heard at the polls.