Return to Current Issue

Angry parents demanded help with passage of a federal school construction bill from politicians in NPA's week of action on school construction following up from the release of Recess Is Over! In April at NPA's legislative briefing on schools.

Three Chicago groups--Brighton Park Neighborhood Council, Blocks Together, and the Northwest Neighborhood Federation--took 80 leaders and invaded the office of Illinois Governor George Ryan. HART held a press conference with 125 leaders and staff from the office of the bill's sponsor, Rep. Nancy Johnson, in Hartford, outside a school committee hearing where repair issues were to be discussed.

Louisiana Communities United held a rally with youth from several overcrowded schools as well as the Teacher's Union.

In Milwaukee WISDOM member organization MICAH stormed a school board meeting and had a spirited confrontation with security guards.

And in New York, the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition and Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation came together under the banner of the Parent Organizing Consortium to hold a rally with 2,000 people in front of City Hall in New York City.

It was all part of the latest move in the campaign to get the Johnson-Rangel Compromise Act, HR 4094, passed through Congress to win a $25 billion bond package that would provide for new school construction across the country. NPA groups helped create the bill earlier this year and were decisive in winning Republican support for the bill.