#RedForEd

A few folks asked me if I had anything to say about the #RedForEd movement. Yeah. I have a lot to say, and the entire take can be boiled down to three words: it's about time.

I've spent a lot of time going around the country advocating for people to stand up and fight for their schools, for the kids who go to them, and for the teachers who teach in them. I've rallied friends and strangers around the idea that all of us have to be willing not just to speak up on behalf of our schools and teachers, but to do so loudly. I've asked people to hold those difficult conversations that point to what is clearly happening: the systematic destruction of our public education system.

Photo by Gina Maravilla

That educators (and it IS educators, not just teachers) have finally had enough should come as no surprise. It's the inevitable result of trying to run a growing state like Arizona on an austerity budget that year-after-year took away the state's ability to make the necessary investments in education. Arizona is home to seven million people, and the money coming into the state's general fund is a mere $9.8 billion. That's not enough to fund basic programs and services. On top of that Arizona gives away $15 billion (and counting) annually in corporate tax breaks and rebates. The Joint Legislative Budget Committee — which analyzes the effects of budgets and budget proposals in the AZ — has pointed out for many years that these breaks haven't worked.

And we wonder why we have a teacher shortage, or why a teacher and 49,999 of her best friends decided to leave school and visit the capitol today.

They had no choice. I'm glad they're doing it. This is their time, and this is their fight. Don't believe anyone who tells you that this is all about politics. It's not. It's about wanting something good and right and deserving for our kids, and the people closest to them standing up and fighting for them.

I stand with them.

All decent people should.

#RedForED bitches.

And a note for the purists: Not for nothing, but the next time someone comes up to me and tells me I'm wearing the wrong color red, or my shirt doesn't have the proper graphic I am kindly going to tell them to suck it. This has happened to me twice over the last week. It debases the actual purpose of what's happening and takes a galactically stupid argument from trite to trivial in a nanosecond. I've made a career out of fighting for kids and teachers, and up until a few weeks ago no one noticed or cared what color I was wearing. Shit, I was #RedForEd before it was cool.