COALITION FOR EDUCATIONAL JUSTICE5927 Great Oak CircleLos Angeles, CA 90042

November/December, 2011

Dear Friends,Coalition for Educational Justice is delighted to invite you to our annual fundraising party! If you livetoo far away to attend, please support CEJ’s work with a generous donation (see tear-off below). Our party’s themethis year is

MASQUERADE

When:

Saturday, December 10, 6-10 pm

Where:

UCLA Community School

3201 W. 8

St. LA, CA 90005(3 blocks west of Vermont)

ASGE multi-purpose room

(Elem School Bldg)

CEJ has had a productive and growing year. We continue our work on two main campaigns,

State BudgetJustice

and

Social Justice Schools, not Privatization

. Coming out of our State Budget Justice campaign, we helped pass Proposition 25 a year ago which enabled California to produce an on-time budget last summer, our first in manyyears. We also developed two new CEJ chapters through this work, one at UCLA Community School and the other atEagle Rock Middle School. Working on our Social Justice Schools, not Privatization campaign, CEJ hosted several parent/community forums attended by more than 300 parents and students from more than 15 schools. We also heldseveral cross-school gatherings, some of which packed Noah Lippe-Klein’s Dorsey HS classroom with more than 80students, where the issues of privatization, social justice schools and budget justice were discussed and analyzed insmall groups.Last spring, the Eagle Rock CEJ chapter, along with CEJ teachers and parents from South, West and NortheastLA, participated in both precinct walking and phone banking again, this time to re-elect Maguerite La Motte and toelect for the first time Bennett Kayser to the Los Angeles School Board. They are pro-teacher, pro-labor and anti- privatization, and along with Steve Zimmer, make up 3 progressive votes on the 7 member Board. We are hoping togrow that to a 4-member majority in 2013.There have also been exciting developments at our other CEJ chapters and schools. Allesandro CEJ continuesto work with the Sierra Club to push LA to end its dependence on coal by 2020. Coming out of our Social JusticeSchools not Privatization campaign, Dorsey and LA High have developed inclusive, democratic reform plans to fight back and hopefully win Public School Choice bids. At UCLA-CS, teacher support programs have been piloted and atCrenshaw, a relevant, project-based, community-connected curriculum is being developed and implemented.Thanks to RESIST and the Diane Middleton Foundation, CEJ was able to fund a part-time staff position for Francis Martin to support our student organizing last school year, and thanks to the Ford Foundation, we have beenable to financially support parent organizing in the Crenshaw area through the exciting work of our long-time steeringcommittee member, Kahllid Al-Alim.Last school year culminated with two vibrant rallies, one co-sponsored by CEJ and UTLA West Area and theother, a large pro-labor, pro-public education gathering in Pershing Square in downtown Los Angeles, both of whichhelped save thousands of public school employees’ jobs, though, unfortunately, we were not able to save them all.

This school year, CEJ is proud to announce a brand-new Alumni Chapter Support Program where selectedCEJ high school grads will receive stipends for helping support our high school chapters and cross-high schoolgatherings. Think of it! Our very own home-grown activists who started out as CEJ student members are now, yearslater and in college, inspiring new young leaders and receiving income from CEJ at the same time! The DianeMiddleton Foundation will help subsidize this program as will our CEJ sustainer donors. If you are interested in becoming a sustainer donor to support this exciting new program, there is a tear off at the bottom of this letter that youcan fill out.To stay in touch with what’s going on with Coalition for Educational Justice, please view our new student-created website athttps://sites.google.com/site/cejinla/On February 10 and 11, CEJ and PEAC (Progressive Educators for Action, the progressive caucus within UTLA,the Los Angeles teachers’ union) will be holding a Social Justice Schools Reform Conference at UCLA-CS. This will be an opportunity to highlight best practices in the social justice work that we have engaged with in our schools.Teachers, students and parents are the folks who should be making the decisions about REAL school reform, not billionaire hedge fund managers, philanthropists and ambitious politicians.We hope you can come and celebrate our victories and our successful organizing efforts as we build an even bigger movement, we the 99%, to fight back against the unjust policies and practices of the billionaire 1%! Hope tosee you on December 10

at our party!!Sincerely, CEJ December Fundraising Party Committee

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PLEASE SEND THIS TEAR-OFF TO: COALITION FOR EDUCATIONAL JUSTICE 5927 Great Oak Circle LA, CA 90042

FOR MORE INFO CALL:

Ronni (323)246-5653 or SEE (818)225-9150

THANK YOU !

COALICIÓN PARA LA JUSTICIA EDUCATIVA5927 Great Oak CircleLos Angeles, CA 90042

Noviembre/diciembre, 2011

Apreciados amigos:A la Coalición para la Justicia Educativa le complace en invitarle a nuestra fiesta anual de recaudaciónde fondos. Si vive muy lejos y no puede asistir, por favor apoye el trabajo que realiza CEJ con una generosa donación(véase el formulario abajo que puede recortar). El tema de nuestra fiesta este año es

BAILE DE MÁSCARAS.

Cuándo:

sábado 10 de diciembre de 6-10 pm

Dónde:

Escuela Comunitaria UCLA

3201 W. 8

St. LA, CA 90005(3 cuadras al oeste de Vermont)

ASGE salón de usos múltiples

(edificio de la escuela primaria)

CEJ ha crecido y ha tenido un año productivo. Continuamos trabajando en dos campañas principales:

Justiciaen el Presupuesto Estatal, y Justicia Social en las Escuelas

, No a la Privatización. Hace un año, por medio denuestra campaña de Justicia en el Presupuesto, ayudamos a que se aprobara la Proposición25, la cual le permitió aCalifornia elaborar un presupuesto a tiempo el verano pasado, el primero en muchos años. También creamos dosnuevos grupos regionales (chapters) de CEJ mediante este trabajo, uno en la Escuela Comunitaria UCLA y el otro enla Escuela de Educación Media Eagle Rock. En nuestra campaña de Justicia Social en las Escuelas, CEJ patrocinóvarios foros de padres/comunidad a los cuales asistieron más de 300 padres y estudiantes de más de 15 escuelas.También tuvimos juntas en varias escuelas, una de las cuales fue la Escuela Preparatoria Dorsey, en la clase de NoahLippe-Klein que se llenó con más de 80 estudiantes para debatir y analizar en grupos pequeños sobre asuntosrelacionados a la privatización, la justicia social en las escuelas y la justicia en el presupuesto.En la primavera pasada, el grupo regional de CEJ de Eagle Rock, junto con maestros y padres de CEJ del sur,del oeste y del noreste de Los Ángeles, participaron tanto en el recorrido de distritos electorales como en las llamadastelefónicas en grupo, esta vez para reelegir a Maguerite La Motte, y para elegir por primera vez a Bennett Kayser como miembro de la Junta de Educación de Los Ángeles. Ambos están a favor de los maestros, de los trabajadores, yen contra de la privatización; juntos con Steve Zimmer, conforman 3 votos progresivos en contra de 7 miembros de laJunta Directiva. Esperamos obtener el apoyo de 4 de los miembros que constituiría una mayoría en el 2013.También se han llevado a cabo actividades muy buenas en otros grupos regionales y escuelas de CEJ. Elgrupo CEJ de Allesandro continúa trabajando con el Sierra Club para presionar a LA para que deje de depender en elcarbón para el año 2020. En nuestra campaña de Justicia Social en las Escuelas y en Contra de la Privatización, lasEscuelas Preparatorias Dorsey y LA han elaborado planes inclusivos y democráticos para luchar con la esperanza deobtener la propuesta de Opción Escolar Pública. En UCLA-CS, se han puesto en marcha programas de apoyo paramaestros, y en Crenshaw se ha elaborado e implementado un plan de estudios pertinente en relación a la comunidad,en base a proyectos.Gracias a RESIST y a la Fundación Diane Middleton, el año pasado CEJ pudo contratar a Francis Martincomo organizadora de estudiantes a tiempo parcial, y gracias a la Fundación Ford, hemos podido financiar el puesto