Public school advocates held events in 100 cities across the country on Dec. 9 in a national day of action to reclaim public education from corporate interests, the overuse of tests, the closing of schools and the diversion of scarce funds to charter schools.

“This is a pivotal time across the country,” said UFT President Michael Mulgrew to more than 500 parents, students, educators and community activists gathered at union headquarters. “Public education has been under unprecedented attack.”

The New York City event highlighted the importance of the union-community partnership. “We have a great opportunity,” Mulgrew said. “If we continue to work together, if we continue to listen to each other, we will build the greatest public school system in this country.”

AFT President Randi Weingarten, who spearheaded the day’s events across the country, said in an email that classroom educators agreed on what was needed to reclaim the promise of public education. “We call upon our leaders to listen to those closest to the classroom about what’s best for our children,” she said. “While we agree on the overall goal to prepare students for life, career and college, we also must be clear that the market-based approach has failed. We need a new path paved with early childhood education, project-based learning, wraparound services, teacher autonomy, professional development, parent and student voices, fair funding formulas and more.”

Zakiyah Ansari, the advocacy director for the Alliance for Quality Education and the mother of eight children, emceed the New York event and occasionally led the audience in a chant of “our schools, our solutions.”

Speakers included Justin Serrano, a student and member of the Urban Youth Collaborative, who brought Ansari and others to tears as he spoke about his hopes for his infant daughter.

“I want my daughter to have all the opportunities possible,” he said. Serrano lamented that black and Hispanic communities often have to fight for basic necessities that others take for granted — such as prekindergarten. “Universal pre-K means the difference between struggling and success,” he said.

School bands from PS 257 and IS 285 in Brooklyn also performed, and members of the IS 285 Meyer Levin Drama Club recited a tribute to Nelson Mandela.

In his remarks, Mulgrew criticized the corporate agenda that has infiltrated public education policy. Unlike in other cities, “our school system is intact,” he said. “There’s been damage, but a new day is coming, and we need to focus our energies on building it up.”

Public Advocate-elect Letitia James, who also addressed the crowd, said the fight to move the city’s schools forward had just begun with the election of a new mayor. “We cannot be complacent and must hold our next mayor to his promises,” James said. “This is day one — the beginning, not the end.”