Grand Rapids for Education Justice presents a list of demands to the Grand Rapids Public Schools

Last night, members of Grand Rapids for Education Justice (GREJ), presented a list of demands to the Grand Rapids Public Schools, demands that they had attempted to present last month.

The GREJ had a meeting scheduled for January 6 of 2020, with the President of the School Board and the acting GRPS Superintendent. However, when members of the GREJ requested that they be able to live-stream that meeting, the GRPS said they did not want that conversation recorded. GREJ believes that transparency is a priority and that the public has a right to know what the content of conversations that the GRPS is having.

The GREJ has also been presenting a great deal of data and an analysis of what they refer to as the two-tiered educational system within the GRPS. Over the past several months the GREJ has attended school board meetings and send communication to the GRPS, who has either been dismissive of their concerns or has ignored them.

The three demands the group laid out are:

• An increase in teacher salaries
• An end to the two-tiered system in the GRPS, a system which disproportionate impacts students experiencing poverty and students of color
• An end to all privatization of GRPS services

You can read a more detailed articulation of each of the three demands at this link and watch the video below of the Press Conference held last night outside of the GRPS administration building.