A small group of educators staged a protest Thursday at Galileo Academy of Science and Technology before school started to join a movement across the country as a national day of action, the day before Donald Trump becomes president.
The principal of the school, however, early Thursday morning came outside to see news trucks outside the school and was surprised. The protest was not sanctioned. The 20 or so protesters, carrying United Educators San Francisco signs, stood outside the school at 7 a.m. and were set to leave just before the first bell rang.
Supervisor Aaron Peskin came out to support them. "Now we have an administration at a time in this country where there’s an attempt to privatize our education," he said. "To marginalize our teachers. To work against the union that gives these individuals….a living wage."
Trump's pick for education secretary, Betsy DeVos, is a champion of vouchers and has a historical past of steering taxpayer dollars away from traditional public schools. Educators were also worried about Trump's anti-immigration stance, and the fact that they are being left off the White House agenda.
Across the country schools will be participating in efforts to “protect and defend” public schools as part of the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools .
“Public education has been a cornerstone of American democracy for a longtime and to dismantle it would mean we are taking away an essential part of our society,” UESF Executive Vice-President Susan Solomon said. "We wouldn’t be out here unless we thought we could affect change."
