SWU

Thursday, May 10 @ 6:00pm to 8:00pm
The Movement Gallery
1412 E. Commerce, San Anto, TX

Gustavo Arellano is the editor of OC Weekly, an alternative newspaper in Orange County, California, author of Orange County: A Personal History and Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America, and lecturer with the Chicana and Chicano Studies department at California State University, Fullerton.

He writes “¡Ask a Mexican!,” a nationally syndicated column in which he answers any and all questions about America’s spiciest and largest minority. The column has a weekly circulation of over 2 million in 39 newspapers across the United States, won the 2006 and 2008 Association of Alternative Weeklies award for Best Column, and was published in book form by Scribner Press in May 2007. 


Arellano has been the subject of press coverage in national and international, The Today Show, Hannity, Nightline, Good Morning America, and The Colbert Report, and his commentaries regularly appear on Marketplace and the Los Angeles Times. Gustavo is the recipient of the Los Angeles Press Club’s 2007 President’s Award and an Impacto Award from the National Hispanic Media Coalition, and was recognized by the California Latino Legislative Caucus with a 2008 Spirit Award for his “exceptional vision, creativity, and work ethic.” Gustavo is a lifelong resident of Orange County and is the proud son of two Mexican immigrants, one whom was undocumented. 

via San Antonio Food Policy Initiative.

The Food Policy Council of San Antonio is hosting a conference next week.
The $60 registration fee is underwritten for the first 200 participants by the Communities Putting Prevention to Work Grant at Metropolitan Health District.
The conference will consist of three tracks, focusing on Producers and Markets, Community Food Systems, and Policy. Presentations will include Community Garden Initiatives, Food Waste Recovery, Federal and State Food Policies, and Food Justice.
Sustaining Our Food,
Sustaining Our Future
Thursday and Friday, May 10-11
Madison High School's Agriscience Magnet Program
5005 Stahl Road
See the full program and register through this website, either online or by paper form.Mark Winne (pronounced "Winnie") will keynote the conference with a presentation on May 10. He is the author of Food Rebels, Guerilla Gardeners, and Smart Cookin’ Mamas: Fighting Back in an Age of Industrial Agriculture and Closing the Food Gap: Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty. Winne is co-founder of a number of food and agriculture policy groups including the City of Hartford Food Policy Commission, the Connecticut Food Policy Council, End Hunger Connecticut, and the national Community Food Security Coalition.
Talk and Book Signing
If you can't attend the conference but would still like to hear keynote speaker Mark Winne, he will also be speaking at St. Mark's Episcopal Church, 315 E. Pecan, at 7 p.m. Wednesday May 9. Call the church office, 210 226-2426 to RSVP.
Both of Mark Winne's books will be available soon at The Twig and the St. Mark's Bookstore, and will be sold at the conference

The conference is searated in to three different tracks:
A Local Producers and Markets – Recent increase in the demand for locally- and regionally-produced food has created new market opportunities for farmers, ranchers and food businesses. More individuals are becoming especially interested in learning where their food comes from, a trend that benefits all Texas agriculture producers. Learn more about selling to local and regional food buyers such as school systems, restaurants, retail grocers, wholesale vendors as well as the general public.

B Community Food Systems A community food system is one in which food production, processing, distribution and consumption are integrated to enhance the environmental, economic, social and nutritional health of a particular place.  This track places emphasis on strengthening current (or developing new) relationships between all components of the food system. This reflects a purposeful approach to building a food system that holds sustainability – economic, environmental and social – as a long-term goal toward which a community strives.

C Policy and Our Food There are three main objectives for food policy: to protect the poor from crises, to develop markets that enhance efficient resource use, and to increase food production that will in turn promote an increase in income.  Food policy involves both consumers and producers.  In this track you will learn how the federal government, the state government and local governments create policies that affect all of us and how to have input into the creation of these public policies.

Roots of Change at the Conference
The Roots of Change Garden will be presenting on the last workshop of the conference labeled Just Food Systems. Please join us!

Description:
The existence of food injustice, like food deserts, is a reflection of the social inequities and historical marginalization that manifest themselves in poor communities of color.  The eradication of such injustice necessitates, the empowerment of local communities, the implementation of culturally appropriate and locally defined solutions, and the ability of communities to produce, distribute, access, and eat good food regardless of race, class, gender, ethnicity, citizenship, ability, religion, or community. This workshop will explore food policy from a grassroots, community-based perspective.

High School and Middle School Program- June 19 - August 18 - Apply!
Come get experience, education and hands-on training in social justice organizing at our 8 week summer program. Develop leadership skills and give back to the community all while earning a bi-monthly stipend. Deadline to apply is May 25th.

Requirements:  

• Be a young person that has been involved with the YLO of High / Middle School age.
•  Must be able to work hours required and be flexible for volunteer time. Make up hour that were missed before the end of program. Must Complete full internship.
• Willingness and passion to participate in activities, workshop, cultural events and training program
• Desire to work on all of the organizations campaigns and projects.
• Openness to learn and think critically, question and strategize social issues
• Be responsible and accountable for time, projects and campaigns
• A willingness to improve communities. 
• Be able to travel.
• HAVE FUN!!

College Program Ages 19-25 - May - August - Apply!
We are always interested in proposals from interested college students. College students in the past have worked on a community-based health campaign, developing living wage campaigns and researching clean energy policies. This year campaigns include urban agriculture, workers rights, underground libraries and ethnic studies and voter education.

Requirements:

•  work at least 15 - 40 hrs a week (flexible)

• be able to travel

• share, participate & sometimes facilitate trainings, workshops, cultural events & other union activities
• car or other forms of transportation

 


Contact Sandra Garcia for more information! Download the application! 

College Application 

High School Application

On March 24th parents, workers, students, community members, and others went to Austin, Texas all for the same reason to march for our Texas Schools. We are fed up with all the budget cuts, underfunding and over testing our students. Schools are closing, teachers and workers are being laid off, meaning crowded classrooms and working the backs of the workers. We ask for pay increase not cuts! 

School Workers! Presente!



One of the chants that was said;When the teachers are under attack, What do we do?
Stand Up, Fight Back!When the WORKERS are under attack, What do we do?Stand up, Fight Back!When the Youth are under attack, what do we do?Stand up, Fight Back!
Youth! Presente!
We will be back!! Southwest Workers Union & Youth Leadership Organization

The Underground Library is looking mighty fine filled with books about our cultura, our stories and our community literature. Please check out the Librotraficante - Underground Library report to find out how you can help the library become a community space for leadership and development.

Internship positions for Undergound Liberians available throughout the summer. Contact dianalopez@swunion.org or laura@swunion.org for more information.


Donated books for the underground library 
Books in the Underground Library

Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante speaks infront of the Alamo
Horray More Books!



Transporting books in the middle of the night. Destination: Tucson, Arizona.

We are excited to announce the summer internship is now accepting application!! ONLY 6 space available.

Gild road all the way to Tucson on the Librotraficante Caravan from El Paso. We smuggles his in as a prohibited author.

Cervantes flew all the way to San Anto and spoke in front of the Alamo between Mayor Castro and his brother Joaquin Castro. Today she flew to Tucson from California to properly close the caravan (fyi my favorite poem from Cervantes is "Freeway 280".)

Powerful energy in Tucson today. Thank you for sharing your stories about how you fought back when the school administration took away your books.

More than 500 books and 30 writers, activist, students and teachers finally arrive at the John A. Valenzuela Youth Center in Tucson, Arizona to deliver banned books.

Diana Lopez and Dagoberto Gilb also joined the librotraficantes.

El Padrino of Chicano Literature Rudolfo Anaya sharing his home with the Librotraficantes. Gracias por la bendicion.

Anaya lives in ABQ, NM and is the writer of Bless Me, Ultima and Albuquerque.

Yesterday was a powerful event. It was hosted by La Mujer Obrera in El Mercado Mayapan. In 1994 the mujeres were fired from the former textile factory, which was bought by the mujeres has been transformed into a market, museum and community space. The museum held historical chicano documents and artifacts around la Raza Unida, labor strikes and movements and the brown berets. They also had a whole section dedicated to the struggle for worker rights that happened in the space.

A few of the local speakers included: Susie Byrd, State Rep. Marisa Marquez, Maria Malone and Donna Snider.

Big shout out to UTEP Chicano Studies for donating copies of Hecho en Tejas and other banned books.

Over 250 people attended the event and it was absolutely amazing.

In El Paso we were joined by Dagoberto Gild, writer of Hecho en Tejas.

Secret Weapon Dennis just finished an interview with Pacifica Radio's Flash Point. Check it out.

" I feel its an important issue that is not talked about in my school district"

SWU representatives Dennis Castillo and Diana Lopez hop on the bus heading for El Paso along with artist, writers and actitvist. Mas to come.

  Red Carpet ActivismPosted February 27th, 2012 by Karlos Gauna Schmieder
In CMJ Home
No Comments »    While the film industry celebrated itself last night with the usual red carpet awards show, another industry had a red carpet night of their own.

Domestic workers and their families and friends held Oscar viewing parties all over the country last night, as part of a campaign that used “The Help” to shed light on conditions for care workers and gain support for fair labor practices. [The picture above is from Southwest Workers Union's viewing party in San Antonio.]
While there has been criticism of the movie’s “Hollywood” portrayal of the South, many domestic workers themselves were happy to see their struggle depicted on the big screen.
“I love the movie because it shed a lot of light on the domestic work industry,” said one domestic worker to Entertainment Tonight.
“Social change happens through changed hearts and minds, changed behavior and changed policy,” said [Ai-Jen] Poo [Of the National Domestic Workers Alliance] to ColorLines.“All that is connected. Doing this work around the film allowed us to tap into the way in which pop culture has a broad impact on the imagination.”
CMJ’s Executive Director, Malkia Cyril, understands this well.
“Framing as a methodology isn’t just about language. The conservative right knows this. While progressives focus narrowly on narrative, the right frames in a multilevel, multidisciplinary way – through policy, media, organizing, funding, research and academia…,” Cyril recently posted on Facebook.
This is what one would call “connecting the dots.”
In Octavia Spencer’s Golden Globe acceptance speech for best supporting actor she said, “All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance.”
No doubt, workers across the country celebrated her victory again last night.
Yet all the victories of this campaign haven’t been symbolic. The campaign has won real changes, like better wages, and vacation and sick days for domestic workers.
Join this winning campaign today, and click the like button above if you feel me.

Tags: Featured, Strategic communicationsThis entry was posted on Monday, February 27th, 2012 at 8:54 am and is filed under CMJ Home. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. 

 For more information about the Center For Media Justice please visit their website:     http://centerformediajustice.org/ 

Come join Our Youth Leadership Organization Beauty Parlor
     "Aye QUE CHULA"           Fundraiser!
     Taking  place:  MARCH 14, 2012
                   From 4:00 to 8:00 pm.
       In the Barbershop           @1412 E. Commerce  
There will be:
                         * Manicure (with hand massage)
                     * Hair Styling (scalp massage)
                  * Food (donated by Fatty's)
               * Drinks
 For $20 you will receive all of the above and a color photo that expresses your chulaness.
  
While you wait there will be rounds of LOTERIA!  
            
        We HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!!!! :) 

Librotraficante Caravan Launches Underground Libraries in Texas, New Mexico & Arizona


 WEBSITES: www.Librotraficante.com, www.NuestraPalabra.org

ORGANIZERS: Tony Diaz, Liana Lopez, Bryan Parras, Lupe Mendez & Laura Acosta
To become a part of history in the making, visit www.librotraficante.com and click on Donate.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact:
Tony Diaz
AztecMuse@aol.com
(713) 867-8943

HOUSTON (February 20, 2012) - The Librotraficante Caravan set to smuggle banned books back into

Arizona has established a network of Underground Libraries in Houston, San Antonio, Albuquerque andTucson.

The Librotraficante Caravan is partnering with nonprofit organizations to help receive, catalog,
distribute and provide an open environment for students and communities to access books. We intend to collect 1 complete set of the books banned by the Tucson Unified School District for each of these
libraries. We also ask all multicultural writers to donate copies of their books, when they are published,from now on, 3 years, 5 years and ten years down the line. We will also donate copies of the bannedbooks to public libraries once a complete set has been collected for each of the Underground Libraries.

"You can bet I'll be donating my books to the Librotraficante Underground Libraries,” said Sandra
Cisneros, author of HOUSE ON MANGO STREET, now prohibited by the Tucson Unified School
District.

Beginning in Houston, at 10 a.m. on Monday, March 12, 2012, from Casa Ramirez Folk Art Gallery
(241 West 19th Street, Houston, Texas 77008), the Librotraficante Caravan begins its trek to San
Antonio and El Paso, Texas; Mesilla and Albuquerque, N.M., and arrives in Tucson, Ariz., on Friday,
March 16. The entire schedule is available online at www.Librotraficante.com.

“Our literature and our history must never be at the mercy of political whim ever again. We ask
supporters to donate copies of the banned books by the dozen to these Underground Libraries to
preserve freedom of speech, so that all of us can tell our stories,” said Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante.

A list of the prohibited books is available at the group’s website: www.Librotraficante.com

The Librotraficante Underground Libraries are:

HOUSTON - Multicultural Education and Counseling Through the Arts (MECA)
1900 Kane Street, Houston, TX 77007 - Alice Valdez, Founder/Director

SAN ANTONIO - Southwest Workers Union, 1414 E. Commerce, San Antonio, TX 78205
Genaro Rendon, Director

ALBUQUERQUE - Los Jardines Institute, 803 La Vega Dr. SW, Albuquerque, NM 87105
Sofia Martinez, Program Coordinator

TUCSON - John Valenzuela Youth Center, 1550 S 6th Ave., South Tucson, AZ 85713
Gloria Hamelitz, Director

For more information about our Domestic Worker Program contact Araceli Herrerra or Alicia Perez at 210.299.2666.

Last week domestic workers from San Antonio came together to view ‘The Help.’  Local domestic workers having been uniting to uplift the struggle of today’s real help.

Based on a New York Times bestseller by Kathryn Stockett, The Help tells the story of a group of domestic workers struggling for dignity and respect in Civil Rights-era Mississippi.

The film features African American domestic workers at the center of a major motion picture – a first for Hollywood.  50 years after the stories told in the film, a workforce of over 2.5 million domestic workers go to work every day to take care of the most precious elements of their employers' lives - their homes and families. And yet, domestic workers remain an unprotected workforce, without access to basic rights that other workers take for granted. Still mostly women of color, far too few domestic workers receive overtime pay, meal and rest breaks, sick leave or vacation. And far too many of them work for less than minimum wage. In this regard, too little has changed.

Domestic workers were left out of the National Labor Relations Act, meaning thousands of workers have no protection if they ask for basic rights.

*Join us on the 26th of March at 6pm for the Oscar Viewing party as we cheer for ' The Help'.  More info to come. *

__________________________________________________

Below is an article from the express news. 
"The Help" helping to organize San Antonio
by Mayra Moreno Posted on February 8, 2012 at 10:22 PM

San Antonio - A popular movie is influencing a group of San Antonio maids to speak up about their plight. Those housekeepers are meeting in hopes of forming a labor union.

It's the movie, "The Help" and some of the women say they can relate to it in way or another.

In a small room, a group of women watched the popular movie, "The Help".

"The movie is giving us an opportunity to speak about the plight of domestic workers," said Irasema Cavazos, domestic worker.

These maids say they're today's help with the same troubles as yesterday.

"There are no protection for us that are doing domestic work," said Cavazos.

Some say they've had a traumatic experience at work but have been too afraid to speak up.

"They find that if they speak up they lose their jobs and they have families so it is hard," said Cavazos.

Alicia Perez is a maid and so was her mom. She died after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. Perez said her mom was forced to work until her last day or risk not getting paid.

Perez said not a day goes by that she doesn't think about her mom. Which is why she is hoping to reach out to others.

"These people are still being worked like with no dignity so that's what they're trying to change," said Cavazos.

And by showing the movie, they hope to show these women that they can unite to help each other.
The group is working to gather enough petitions to send off to the white house. If you would like to get in touch with "Trabajadoras de Lugar en Accion" you can reach them at 210-310-6071.

Cross post from Indigenous Environmental Network  February 13, 2012

We have just 24 SHORT hours to stop the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.
The Senate could vote as early as this Tuesday (tomorrow!) on a deal that would greenlight construction of the pipeline. After President Obama rejected Keystone XL last month, many Senators are rushing to resurrect it in order to protect their friends, Big Oil. As you read this, the oil industry is tightening the screws on the remaining Senators they need to get this thing passed.
"Native Americans have spoken, the Mother Earth Accord clearly outlines U.S. Native Nation's opposition to the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. Elected Tribal leadership met with President Obama in private at the White House Tribal Leadership Summit in December 2011. Tribal Chairmen from many nations told President Obama face to face that this project is not in the national interest. The action of the Senate to circumvent the White House on this decision is a mockery of American democracy and slap in the face to the sovereignty and treaty rights of U.S. Tribal governments who stand opposed." Tom B.K. Goldtooth, Executive Director, Indigenous Environmental Network
To stop them, we need a remarkable response.
That’s why for the next 24 hours the movement is uniting in a serious way to blitz the Senate with messages from across the country demanding that they reject Keystone XL. Our goal is to collect and send 500,000 messages between now and the vote on Keystone. Dozens of organizations are working together, and we will be joined by bloggers, media figures, and our celebrity allies to make our message unavoidable.
We don’t have a second to lose. Can you sign the petition to the Senate right away and then share it with your friends?

Click here to sign.
The petition says: “Senators: Block any efforts to revive the dangerous Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.”
There is no way to the build Keystone XL that does not accelerate production of the tar sands and contribute disastrous amounts of carbon to climate change. The only people benefiting from this pipeline would be Big Oil - every single claim about the positive economic impacts has been proven false by independent review.
For the next 24 hours, it’s all hands on deck. We’ve rigged together some online tools to help you email your friends, share the petition on Twitter and Facebook. But we also need you texting everyone you know, calling up your mother and asking her to sign on, shouting out the news from the rooftops.
24 hours from now, a team in Washington, DC will march into the Senate with 50 giant boxes, each holding 10,000 signatures (or more!). It will be a unified show of our power: our voices against the dollars of the fossil fuel industry.
PLEASE SIGN NOW - THERE ISN'T A MOMENT TO WASTE!
Thanks for everything you’ve done already. Let’s make the next 24 hours a big, big deal.Mother Earth AccordTribal Government Chairs and Presidents, Traditional Treaty Councils, and US property owners, with First Nation Chiefs of Canada, impacted by TransCanada’s proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline and tar sands development present at the Rosebud Sioux Tribe Emergency Summit, September 15-16, 2011, on the protection of Mother Earth and Treaty Territories:
Recognizing that TransCanada’s proposed Keystone XL pipeline would stretch 1,980 miles, from Hardisty, Alberta, Canada to Nederland, Texas, carrying up to 900,000 barrels per day of tar sands crude oil, which would drive additional tar sands production;
Recognizing the existing resolutions and letters in opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline;
Guided by the principles of traditional indigenous knowledge, spiritual values, and respectful use of the land;
Affirming our responsibility to protect and preserve for our descendants, the inherent sovereign rights of our Indigenous Nations, the rights of property owners, and all inherent human rights;
Affirming our Indigenous view that the Earth is our true mother, our grandmother who gives birth to us and maintains all life;
Recognizing that the tar sands in northern Alberta, Canada is one of the largest remaining deposits of unconventional oil in the world, containing approximately 2 trillion barrels, and there are plans for a massive expansion of development that would ultimately destroy an area larger than the state of Florida;
Recognizing that tar sand development has devastating impacts to Mother Earth and her inhabitants and perpetuates the crippling addiction to oil of the United States and Canada;
Recalling in September 2010, the Assembly of First Nations of Canada called on the United States government to take into account the environmental impacts of tar sands production on First Nations in its energy policy, citing the high rates of cancer in the downstream Fort Chipewyan community, which prominent scientists say are potentially linked to petroleum products;
Recognizing the findings published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that tar sands production releases 13 elements considered priority pollutants under the U.S. Clean Water Act, including lead, mercury, and arsenic into the Athabasca River in northern Alberta, which flows 3,000 miles downstream to the Arctic Ocean;Recognizing that tar sands production produces three times the greenhouse gas emissions of conventional oil and NASA climate scientist James Hansen has said that if the tar sands are fully developed, it will be “essentially game over” for the climate;
Recognizing that Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions from tar sands development have more than doubled since 1990, which is the main reason Canada is failing to meet its greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets under the Kyoto Protocol;
Concerned that Indigenous people are most vulnerable to the social, cultural, spiritual, and environmental impacts of climate change;
Recognizing that Exxon-Imperial and ConocoPhillips Heavy Haul shipments are attempting to haul more than 200 oversized loads of heavy oil machinery from the Port of Lewiston, Idaho along Highway 12 into Montana, then north to the tar sands project in Alberta, Canada;
Concerned that tar sands crude oil is more toxic, corrosive, and abrasive than conventional crude oil and poses additional pipeline safety risks that have not been fully assessed by the U.S. Department of State in its final Environmental Impact Statement for the Keystone XL pipeline, issued August 26, 2011;
Recalling that TransCanada’s year-old Keystone pipeline, from Manitoba, Canada to Patoka, Illinois and Cushing Oklahoma, has had 14 spills in the U.S. portion since it started operation in June 2010, and was temporarily shut down by regulators in late May, 2011;
Recognizing TransCanada’s extremely poor safety record for the Keystone pipeline, it is probable that the Keystone XL pipeline will have frequent spills because it will have similar design specifications;
Concerned that oil spills from the Keystone XL pipeline would destroy live-sustaining water resources, including the Ogallala Aquifer, which provides drinking water for millions of people and farmland irrigation throughout the Midwestern United States;
Concerned that construction of the Keystone XL pipeline will impact sacred sites and ancestral burial grounds, and treaty rights throughout traditional territories, without adequate consultation on these impacts;
Concerned that the Keystone XL pipeline would increase air pollution in the communities surrounding the refineries that the pipeline would service where people of color, Indigenous peoples, and poor people are already experiencing high rates of cancer and respiratory illness;
Recalling that TransCanada’s permit application to the Canadian government for the Keystone XL pipeline said it will increase oil prices in the United States by $4 billion per year;
Acknowledging that the Keystone XL pipeline is not designed to provide the United States with energy security and that industry documents indicate Gulf Coast refineries operate in a free trade zone and plan to refine tar sands oil into petroleum products that are intended for export overseas;Therefore, we are united on this Mother Earth Accord, which is effective immediately, that it be resolved as follows:
We support and encourage a moratorium on tar sands development;
We insist on full consultation under the principles of “free, prior and informed consent,” from the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples both in the United States and Canada;
We urge regional authorities to halt the Exxon-Imperial and ConocoPhillips Heavy Haul shipments of tar sands equipment through the United States and Canada;
We urge the United States and Canada to reduce their reliance on oil, including tar sands, and invest in the research and development of cleaner, safer forms of sustainable energy and transportation solutions, including smart growth, fuel efficiency, next-generation biofuels and electric vehicles powered by solar and wind energy.
We strongly believe that the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline is not in the national interest of the United States or Canada; and
We urge President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton to reject the Presidential Permit for the Keystone XL pipeline.
PLEASE sign the petition to the Senate right away and then share it with your friends!

         We can all agree that there needs to be something seriously done about our schools education system, with budget cuts happening every year and only getting worse. In my mind I knew what was happening was bad, with my tuition going up and classes a little larger than usual, but I didn't know how bad.
           Friday,  February 3, 2012 was The Save Texas Schools conference and first off I was a bit disappointed at the lack of youth that was present, although we were blessed with the presence of a few students from UTA and two young boys, one from Fort Worth and one from Schertz, Tx. At the save our Texas schools conference they were examining the education crisis,  budget cuts, and how schools reacted to these large amounts of cuts. 

    
Northside ISD alone cut
           - 22 gifted and talented teachers
           - 20 math and science teachers                       *Northside is one of the more privileged  school
            - 40 special education teachers                        districts so you can only imagine how bad of an
            - 17 administrators                                           impact the other school districts are taking these
            - 28 Coaches                                                    budget cuts. 
            - 86 elementary teachers
            - 66 High school teachers

August 2011, Bexar County 
              Total loss Biennium: 237,095,083.00                       *Texas has 5.4 Billion in budget cuts
    -SAISD
              Revenue Total Loss Biennium: 23,126,192              * Each district in Texas lost Revenue
    -NISD                                                                                    Total Biennium  
              Revenue Total Loss Biennium: 86,333,186

        Our Schools are suffering desperately, Teachers are being asked to do more with less, not to mention no teacher has received a pay raise in years and with the cost of living going up ever year is another burden to bare.  Cramming children into classrooms and not funding the additional growth. In all reality we, as a state, are at risk of losing a generation. These budget cuts on education affect everyone, high school drop out rates are at an all time high and Texas is below the average rate of college completion.
      These budget cuts on education funding are depriving, repressing and limiting the opportunity for our youth, for our future generations, for our future leaders!
And this is the first year all 31 senators are up for re-election, so I'm asking for those who can vote, VOTE PRO_EDUCATION!Come join us March 24th, 2012 Austin, TXMARCH: 11 am @ 12th and TrinityRally: Noon- 2pm@ TX State Capitol