Give Us Your 2 Cents... We'll Ask for More Later

The Vote:

• Political Education (Youth Council, Democracy Matters, Transform America, GQ, LUCHA, and C-Roots) 6 votes


• Alternatives to college (Youth Council) 1 vote


• Developing a purpose for the NYC Dept. of Education (Transform America, C-Roots) 2 votes


• Making college Affordable (Youth Council, Democracy Matters, GQ, and LUCHA) 4 votes


• Increasing Mentors and Counselors (Democracy matters, Transform America, GQ, LUCHA, C-Roots) 5 votes

Democracy is not something you put away for ten years, and then in the 11th year you wake up and start practicing again. We have to begin to learn to rule ourselves again.
Chinua Achebe

That is the power of what we are doing: Learning to rule ourselves. We activists, are deciding what WE think is important and making moves to manifest our ideals. We're not waiting for change to come, we're not just writing facebook notes, we're not just talking about how sad things are, and we're not just voting for Obama and hoping that he will come through on his speeches... We're developing Action Plans and following through. And we're doing it together.

As a coalition, we have decided that the 4 goals we will be working to attain are as follows:

1. Increasing the amount of counselors and mentors in NYC public schools.

2. Providing a political education to public school students in NYC

3. Making higher education affordable

4. Developing a mission statement for the NYC Dept. of Education

For any of the above objectives, what do you think could be done to help achieve these goals? What are other organizations, other people, or you yourself doing, that can help to achieve these goals? Transforming our educational system is a big goal. We're not going to do it by ourselves. Give us your 2 cents.

* Explanations
1. Bringing professionals and college students to the classroom to be counselors and mentors to high school and middle school kids so that students have someone to talk to about their futures and what an education can provide for them. This will also affect the demand side of education by increasing it because kids will see how valuable an education is.

2. Teaching students about the social justice issues affecting them such as healthcare and the economy as well as encouraging people to vote smart and be knowledgeable about the candidates and the political process. Getting high school students and young people involved in local elections, encouraging their candidacy in local politics such as the city council, and encouraging activism so that they themselves can create the type of change they wish to see in their communities.

3. To make college more affordable for prospective and current students as well as ensuring that students are aware of scholarship and grant opportunities.

4. The New York City Dept. of Education does not have a purpose or mission statement. We want to create a purpose and rally the students and teachers and parents around this purpose while at the same time increasing the demand side of education and getting kids to really want to learn and invest their time and energy into education.