Remember when a raucous School Committee meeting in East Providence gave reason to hope that the game might be up for the National Education Association’s unchallenged control of Rhode Island education? If so, odds are that Anchor Rising plays in that memory. We liveblogged, photographed, recorded, and analyzed. And it made a difference.
Two days later, East Providence union president Valerie Lawson and NEA lawyer John Liedecker were on the Dan Yorke show, with Jim Hummel filling in. Lawson was explaining that the teachers would never shout down a member of the public who held the microphone; rather, teachers were a little overenthusiastic in cheering for the next person in line to speak. Hummel played a clip of audio from the recordings linked, above, that proved Lawson to be lying, and Liedecker had to jump into the conversation to change the subject.
The point is that we were there, and because we were there, people had access to the truth about what happened. That is why it’s so important that Rhode Islanders who want to pull the state back from the brink help us to create a full-time job within Anchor Rising. So that we’ll be there when it matters.
Please email or call (401-835-7156) Justin to pledge support for 2011. We’re still a long way off, but pledges only commit you to payment if we achieve our goal.