In the race for the vacant DC City Council at-large seat, only one candidate has emerged as the true champion of the citizens of Washington, DC.
That candidate is Perry Redd.
Redd is the only one of six remaining hopefuls to call for a total moratorium on the selling out and selling off of DC’s public school properties to "crony" corporations.
"Crony" is how Redd refers to corporate relations that have been repeatedly alleged to exploit poor and minority children, families and disenfranchised neighborhood communities in DC and throughout the nation.
Redd is also a candidate with a record of activism so historic that he has already been profiled in lengthy detail on Wikipedia.
Redd states, “I am unequivocally for a moratorium on any further charter school expansion."
"I am for 'pride in our public assets,' especially, our public schools."
"I am for investment in the existing school curricula, programming, facilities and children, which will breed success and a healthier, more unified DC.”
When it comes to controversial standardized testing and its punitive “IMPACT” on DC teachers, Redd states: “I am saddened by the continued emphasis on teacher testing to garner competency, as opposed to testing teacher effectiveness in reaching our children's potential."
All DC teachers should stand up and cheer for Redd’s position:
'Teachers are more than information drones; they are human caretakers of our children's growth and development.
'They have been degraded by our past two chancellors and must be treated with respect.
'My position is that the vaguely-proscribed evaluation model ("IMPACT") must be reformed.'
Perhaps most important of all, is that Redd is the only candidate to acknowledge that,
'…we operate in an inherently unconstitutional environment.'
“A charter school's autonomy regarding personnel (union/wage requirements), public-private (corporate sponsorship) and most of all, academic requirements speak to gross inequality."
"In light of the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board decision of 1954, separate can never be equal.”
Redd is also the only candidate still fighting for taxation with representation: DC Statehood.
Furthermore, Redd’s affiliation with the DC Statehood/Green Party could be the answer to a more ecologically responsible and healthier city-- with full Senatorial and Congressional representation.
Read Redd's entire statement regarding education from "Let's Choose DC" here, or visit redd4council.
Be sure to vote in the special election at Judiciary Square, (see map at left), by April 23.
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