Thousands of Boston students walk out in protest of $40mil tax break for GE...

[Atman]

...while city cuts services claiming a $50mil shortfall.

Kids are waking up.

http://usuncut.com/resistance/boston-public-schools-walkout/

#bpswalkout

pic.twitter.com/5pSKyz4DOb

[Agschmid]

1. Lots of pics on Instagram too.

I'm right near it, big crowd, big walkout.

[malaise]

2. Great news

Bernie is good for the kids - they are learning.

[winterwar]

3. Great post

It's inspiring to see the youth paying attention. This corporate welfare has to stop. A lot of baby boomers put the corporate blinders on. I actually had somebody on DU arguing that it was a good thing that GE was shipping manufacturing jobs to China. As they put it, the jobs don't matter because it's dullard's work.

[Jim Beard]

4. Bring on the pitch forks, its good to see so many telling their ELECTED leaders

to spend their own money their parents paid in to, for a decent education.

On a personal note about education funding, don't ever get suckered into thinking like the lottery money will go to public education. At least not in Texas. They just pull out of regular funding and replace it with lottery money. They actually raise taxes on the people.

[4Q2u2]

5. In Mass

Lottery Aid to towns is based on property values. So the rich who rarely play the lottery get the larger funding from the poorer communities that play it more.

[Jim Beard]

6. They always have it figured out how they can make money without doing anything.

[Nevernose]

29. IIRC, there is ONE state w/ protections for education

Just one state in which the law is crafted so that the legislature can't cut the education budget and replace it with lottery money.

Meanwhile, I live in Nevada -- one of the most tax poor states -- and there is no lottery, despite statewide votes overwhelmingly demanding one. You know, because lottery gambling hurts poor people.

[hollysmom]

7. I hate GE, ever since I worked there, ha ha

bad business practices practiced all over the place today and destroying this country.
I would join them if they were here, are any in NYC?

[Initech]

8. So no money for municipal government, but plenty for greedy corporations!

[Downwinder]

9. This why the FBI is going to start monitoring schools?

[Atman]

10. Who was helped in ANY WAY by this deal?

Connecticut lost a major employer (although Boston is close enough that many staffers will move...at least senior, salaried personnel), and a major source of tax revenue. Boston gives away $40 million in tax breaks for a corporation which actually get tax REFUNDS from the government. The clear winner? GE. Once again, the government giving away perfectly good money for no reason. It's not as if GE is going to shut down operations tomorrow if it doesn't get it's way. It's massively profitable, and $50 Million pays for Jeff Imelt's salary in just a few years. This is absolutely scandalous.

GO BOSTON STUDENTS! GO BERNIE!

[Rex]

11. Eventually some generation will come along and stop the wholesale theft of our country.

Until then, things will only get harder for the working class and easier for the owners.

[Kang Colby]

12. Wow, what a stupid idea.

Kids decide to cut class as a form of protest? By that standard of protest, I would've been considered a major civil rights leader during my senior year.

Where are the parents?

[Atman]

13. Go back to the cave, Junior.

Cutting class and staging a walk-out are very different things. You cut class to get high, buy a Subway foot-long, or blow your soccer team mate. These kids are taking a stand against a totally fucked up system.

[Kang Colby]

15. Why don't they do something productive...

that's my point. Write letters to city council, write or call their state reps, lead a boycott of GE..you know actually being a productive part of our democratic society. Otherwise, they just end up being the the type of adults who will "like" a Facebook post but never show up to cast a vote.

Instead, they choose to walk out of school and waste time on XBox Live rather than focus on their education. They were no more successful at accomplishing anything than were the "Occupy" protestors.

[Atman]

16. Write a fucking letter? Are you serious?

WRITE A LETTER?

Last I heard, they staged a walkout in protest of GE. But maybe instead the students should stop buying military aircraft, or funding wars, or owning news networks. HOLY SHIT...myopic much?

[Kang Colby]

20. Ask yourself this...

who does walking out of class hurt? Do you think Boston city council or GE care if less than 5% of BPS students decided to cut class for the day? Because that's what happened here. Less than 5% of students decided to skip school to "protest". Meanwhile, 95% of students were busy learning and preparing to better America one day.

The 5% who skipped will likely be the same crowd waxing poetic about "the oligarchy" in a few years. But of course, never actually showing up to vote.

[Atman]

21. Ask yourself this...

What is the impact of students walking out of class given the national press coverage? A relatively small number of students walked out of class -- no one ever expected to shut down the schools or bring the city to a standstill -- but there is now NATIONAL press coverage bringing further attention to the greed and special treatment given to corporate America.

[Kang Colby]

24. Poor decision making like this has consequences.

This summer when the school administrators and city council look at the annual data, and see that 2016 had an excessively high truancy rate (in large part due to today's protest)...it makes for solid justification to a) layoff career educators and b) discontinue programs like less popular foreign language courses.

Thus, this protest will in all likelihood have the opposite effect from what was intended. I hope the students enjoyed their day off.

[Atman]

26. What a complete crock of shit.

You can't seriously believe the school board of Boston will set their budgets based upon the number of students in class during a school walkout in March of 2016! Are you just a paid troll for the city of Boston? This is one of the most ludicrous posts I've ever seen on DU, and that's saying a lot!

[Kang Colby]

28. No, but what I am suggesting is that the city WILL likely use this as further justification for

budget cuts. They won't normalize the data by removing record truancy on account of today's protest. Why would they purposefully weaken their case by not counting data from today? If your argument about the city is correct - why wouldn't they use data showing record truancy to their advantage?

[Rayc3255]

22. BPS Walkout Student

Kang Colby,

As one of the students that protested today, I will let you know that thousands of students showed, and left every single class with 3 or less students in them from each school that participated. From BLS along 1,700 students showed. Not only did we protest but we DID write letters to the superintendent, mayor, and city council. Maybe, demonstrating during school does not seem like the brightest choice, but it is one of our only choices that would catch peoples attention and let them know we mean business. Furthermore, it met its expectations! We were acknowledged, people are now more aware, and we are being taken more seriously, we got the attention we needed to accomplish what we want whether good or bad, now our voices have been heard.

[Kittycat]

23. Thank you for taking a stand. eom

[Atman]

25. ^^^+1000

Thank you. We need more energetic, involved students like you.

[Tsiyu]

14. How sad that you did not take your education seriously

These kids appear to value theirs even without the benefit of hindsight.

I would also venture to say that these kids know where our government's priorities should be, and they have every right--and even a duty--to express that knowledge publicly.

They are probably A students who stay in class where they should be most of the time. Just think where you might be now had you done the same.

[Kang Colby]

17. Yes, look at all they were able to accomplish...

...almost as little as the "Occupy" movement from a few years ago.

The time would have been better spent lobbying their parents to pay higher property taxes or send donations to fund their school. This kind of "protest" reminds me of adults who will like, rec, and upvote all the live long day...but won't bother to show up and vote.

[Atman]

18. It might remind you of that, but that is because you're daft.

I'm your parents age. We show up and vote, while our kids are too busy playing some stupid video game. Most people I know that are your age don't actually have access to "news." They know nothing of the world oustide. WarCraft (sorry if that is an old reference) or whatever social video game you play is far more important than actually paying attention to the world around you.

Your kind of "protest" reminds me of the lazy ass kids who won't get off their Cheeto-stained couches to actually go out and vote for their own best interests, because they're too busy blaming all of their so-called "woes" on the parents who are still taking care of them.

GET THE FUCK OUT OF THE BASEMENT, DO SOME GOTV WORK, AND VOTE. VOTE. VOTE. VOTE. Stop blaming your parents. We've fucked it up bad enough, but you can actually fix it. Just turn off the X-Box.

[Kang Colby]

19. +1

Believe it or not, I agree with much of what you just said.

[Zambero]

27. Guess that TV ad guy didn't change the world after all

And it appears GE isn't fooling anyone on Boston either.