Virginia Defender Staff Report

Originally published July 30, 2020 to the Virginia Defender Facebook page.

Organizers with the education advocacy group Virginia Educators United have scheduled an “Education Equity Or Else Motor March” in Richmond for Monday, Aug. 3, to promote progressive reforms dealing with both public schools and the community at large.

The caravan is to gather at 10 a.m. at the Martin Luther King Jr. at Middle School, 1000 Mosby St. in the East End and proceed in a loop traveling downtown, across the James River into South Side and then back to the school.

The car caravan’s demands are:

(1) No reopening until the scientific data supports it
(2) Police-free schools
(3) All schools must be supported to function as community schools with adequate numbers of counselors and nurses
(4) Safe conditions including lower class sizes, PPE, cleaning, testing, and other key protocols
(5) Equitable access to online learning
(6) Support for our communities and families, including moratorium on evictions/foreclosures, providing direct cash assistance to those not able to work or who are unemployed, and other critical social needs
(7) Moratorium on new charter or voucher programs
(8) Massive infusion of federal money to support the reopening funded by taxing the billionaires and Wall Street

The Richmond action will be part of a National Day of Resistance sponsored by a coalition of teachers unions and allied organizations. (See: https://www.demandsafeschools.org/)

More information about the Richmond action is at: https://www.facebook.com/events/752667195498136/