“If you want mass civil disobedience from your teachers, go ahead and renew Gist’s contract,” said Brian Chidester, a teacher in the Bristol Warren school district during an impassioned speech at a teacher rally Monday. The state Board of Education begins debating the embattled education commissioner’s contract tonight.
Chidester said he is prepared to lead such an action, if the Board and Governor Chafee renew Gist’s contract. He cited the recent victory for Seattle teachers whose successful boycott of standardized tests led the district to allow high schools to choose whether or not to use the test.
Note that he got some pretty good applause.
He also posted to his blog an ‘Open Letter to Chafee and Mancuso: Dump Gist‘ which was was cross-posted to SocialistWorker.org.