It depends. Is public education relevant? Is the argument for “Net Neutrality” relevant? Are democratic elections relevant? If you’ve answered “yes” to any of the above, then the Village Independent Democrats (VID) is a relevant political club!
“Is There A School For My Child? Options for Education in NYC.” was the subject of a forum put on by VID in November. It featured representatives of the charter school movement, Erik Joerss, Deputy for Governmental Affairs for the NYC Charter School Center and Dr. Barbara McKeon, Principal of the Broome Street Charter High School, a charter school catering to homeless and students in foster care. Leonie Haimson, Executive Director of Class Size Matters and Tamara Rowe, member of the Community Education Council (CEC) District 2 voiced vocal opposition to most charter schools and urged parents to get involved with improving public neighborhood school. Discussion involved funding inequality, student selection, lack of accountability by charters and the future of public schools as we know them. A hopeful sign at the end of the forum is that many sides of the education debate will study what works in all schools and what can be improved.
Tim Wu, Lieutenant Governor candidate, and the man who coined the term “net neutrality”, will speak at the VID’s General Membership Meeting on December 11, 2014. This will give members and the community an inside look into what is meant by Net Neutrality and why it is needed to ensure fair use of the internet by everyone. Tim will speak at 8:00 PM at VID’s meeting in St. John’s Lutheran Church, 183 Christopher Street. Everyone is invited to attend.
If you think that the electoral process is broken due to money, ‘gotcha’ techniques and negativity, please come to a VID meeting and get involved in making elections relevant.
Relevantly yours,
Nadine Hoffmann, Presidential candidate, VID.
