WHEREAS, New York City public schools have educated millions of children of all races, ethnicities, nationalities and genders throughout the five boroughs, the seeds of which were planted at the New York African Free School in 1787 and which first sprouted in 1805 with the establishment of the Free School Society; and

WHEREAS, the movement for free public schools for all, and not just poor children, took root 175 years ago in the establishment of the Board of Education in 1842 and flourished during the city consolidation of 1898; and

WHEREAS, during economic prosperity, the depths of depressions, in war and in peace, in times of political upheaval and after natural disasters, the NYC public schools have consistently fulfilled their mission: to provide the city’s children with a path toward a better life; and

WHEREAS, for the past 15 years, the nation’s public schools have been a target for privatization under the guise of reform and choice with the “reformers” — an assortment of hedge fund managers, entrepreneurs and billionaires — “loudly proclaim(ing) the failure of American public education,” Diane Ravitch recently wrote in The New York Times; and

WHEREAS, even as society demands more from schools than ever, our educators continue the noble tradition of public schools, evidenced by the success of many of our students who would have no future without our endeavors, and

WHEREAS, the fight for preserving our neighborhood public schools, a bedrock of our democracy, is a fight for the common good; therefore be it

RESOLVED, that the UFT will immediately launch its 2017 campaign Public School Proud, which will celebrate our strong neighborhood public schools, champion our schools and communities and honor the accomplishments of our students and educators; and be it further

RESOLVED, that the UFT refuses to give an inch in the battle to protect neighborhood public schools from those forces that seek through privatization, for-profit charter schools and vouchers to destroy the equalizing powers of public education.