Defending Public Education In Statesboro!

Last year over four billion dollars was cut from Georgia k-12 public education, and students attending publicly funded universities saw their fees increase by 17%. The long term effects of these cut, if they remain, on the future of education in our state seem unmeasurable. We already know that some school districts are being forced to ration calories at the lunch line, institute four day school weeks, and of course cut teachers and school workers. It's hard to imagine things getting much worse...but they can, and they might.

This upcoming legislative session could see even more budget cuts for k-12, and more tuition and fee hikes for college students. That's why are work to build a movement to defend public education is literally a fight for the future, that's right our future is on the line here; not just the future of every current student but every future student.

This past week kicked of the first of several dozen trips we are organizing around the state in our effort to build a campaign to defend education. We had two organizers from Georgia Students For Higher Education join me on the road to Statesboro Georgia, home of splash in the boro, Georgia Southern University, and the best Howard Johnson in the Country. We had the pleasure of meeting with Bobbi Jo Rogers, Jeremy Foreman, and Dr. Rosemarie Stallworth. They couldn't have been a better trio. Jeremy is and extremely hands on staff with the hands on network, he also just seems to know every single soul in the boro, no joke. Bobbi Joe is an education major at Georgia Southern, and Dr. Stallworth has very to Georgia Southern. It seems that, during our meeting, we established some pretty clear challenges and next steps to begin organizing in the boro and ways to plug into te broader statewide network.

Big Ups to Sofia Lipko and Hira Mahmood for rolling out there and helping to make this meeting be a success!

If you're interested in bringing us out your way just let us know!


Tim Franzen
American Friends Service Committee

Movement Building in Statesboro!!

Jeremy Foreman, the coordinator of Hands on Southeast Georgia, recently asked AFSC Atlanta if we were able to come down to Statesboro Georgia and Facilitate our newly developed Movement Building workshop for members of Citizens Climate Lobby(CCL) and we gladly accepted the invitation.
A trip to Statesboro was not only an opportunity to learn more about Citizens Climate Lobby, it was also a chance to outreach for AFSC’s statewide projects including the April 12-16th Martin Luther King Justice Tour and the May 21-23rd, “Be the Change” Youth Convergence.
Once in Statesboro we started the day with a nationwide conference call for the Citizens Climate Lobby. There was over a dozen cities represented on the call and their special guest speaker was Sam Daley-Harris, founder of RESULTS.
The focus of the call seemed to reflect the purpose of CCL which is, “To create the political will for a sustainable climate. To empower individuals to have breakthroughs in exercising their personal and political power.” Each city was asked to commit to making a certain amount of phone call the Congressional representative, set up meetings with politicians, and summit Op Ed pieces to local/national publications. The call was persuasive enough to get me to commit to sending a letter to my congressional Representative (Phil Gingery) in support of CCL’s legislative actions.
After the call I had the pleasure of facilitating AFSC Atlanta’s newly unveiled movement building workshop, which is designed to give participants a basic “how to” session on pushing new ideas to their community, campaign development, building a grassroots organization, and overcoming the personal obstacles that often create barriers to grassroots organizing.
At the end of the day I personally was excited about some of the ideas members of the group had developed to increase the capacity for change in Statesboro. We’re excited, here at AFSC Atlanta, at the prospect of providing the Movement Building workshop to folks around the state in the future!

To learn more about Citizens Climate Lobby visit:
www.citizensclimatelobby.org


Tim Franzen
American Friends Service Committee