Philly Education Debt Workshop #1

This Spring, Philly DSA OCOS Coordinating Committee presents a series of workshops that explore the impact of living in a community mired in massive public and personal debt related to education.

This workshop will feature three Philly teachers - Michelle Gainer, Ismael Jimenez, and Louis Fantini - who will discuss how their personal debt has impacted their lives as teachers (and facilitated by Jason Wozniak (West Chester University/Teachers College, Columbia).

West Chester University's Philly Campus
701 Market Street - Room 05

Other Philly Education Debt Workshops:
Workshop #2 - Schools in Debit - Toxic, Closing, Privatized - 5/25
https://www.facebook.com/events/467412593796336/
Workshop #3 - Debt: Bad Spelling, an Adult Problem - TBA

Rather than promoting individualistic ways of adapting to debt regimes at the local, state, and federal levels, this series of workshops will demonstrate debt’s impact on education structurally, in order to delegitimize the policies that uphold austerity ideology and policy. Given stagnant wages, current debt loads, and lack of federal/state/municipal support for education, we must ask who the schools are actually serving-- children, teachers, communities --or banks?

During this workshop we will discuss how teachers are overburdened by the debts they had to take on to become teachers and acquire certifications. In addition, many teachers are forced to take on credit card, medical, and other kinds of debt because teacher wages have been stagnant and remain unjustifiably low in Philadelphia. These debts lead to declining teacher living standards which ultimately impacts classroom teaching. Teachers worried about their debts are teachers that have less time and emotional and physical energy to care for their students.

The Philly Education Debt workshops won’t teach anyone how to save money, pay bills, or efficiently operate a school. Instead, in each of our encounters we will examine a different reason why the debts we owe are illegitimate and, why public schools deserve more funding. As current movements around unjust tax abatements and the need for PILOTs make clear, the wealthy rob our schools of funding revenue and force our schools into debt bondage. Ultimately, what we aim to show is that we don’t owe the 1% anything, they owe us!