PSU

In the recent state budget proposal, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett proposed a cut in the education system of around $550 million (that's right, million). At the same time, the Pennsylvania prison system has not received any cuts and in fact has gotten an increase in funding (of approximately 11%).

MMPTV tells the untold stories of those uniting across struggles to build a movement to end poverty.

On, Tuesday April 20th around 2pm, Philadelphia Student Union conducted a 3-minute action. In only 180 seconds, we showed the power and leadership that young people have when we are organized for non-violence.

On April 8th, the Philadelphia Student Union, along with the Unified Taxi Workers Alliance and Media Mobilizing Project, went to the front lines of the Temple nurses strike to show support and stand with picketing PASNAP members. Justin Carter, a member of PSU and a senior at West Philadelphia HS, spoke to the crowd about the connections between students' struggles & nurses' struggles. He called attention to the problems with the 'gag clause' that Temple is trying to put on nurses, saying, "Just like students have the right to speak out about the conditions in our schools, nurses have the right to speak out about the working conditions in their hospitals."

On MLK day over 600 people from all walks of life took the first step towards creating a just and peaceful school system. Now it's time for the next one.

PLEASE NOTE: THE DATE OF THIS EVENT EVENT HAS BEEN CHANGED TO FEB. 17TH AT 4PM, DUE TO THE SNOW ADVISORY.

On Monday, January 15th, the amazing young leaders at the Philadelphia Student Union held a "Call to Witness and Action" to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.'s Birthday. The event called for an end to all forms of school violence. The messaging that the students developed for the event aimed to broaden our understanding of violence. The students explained that structural violence, produced by underfunding our public schools, leads to all sorts of negative outcomes, from high drop out rates, to low levels of college access, and a school-to-prison pipeline. In order to develop this deep understanding of violence, which even college students struggle to develop, PSU members came together for hours to probe the system in which their schools exist, developing a deeper analysis of the situation. Amazing, right?

We, the students at Overbrook High School (OHS), have been working to improve our school for the last two years.  This is because we love our school, and we feel like students have to take responsibility for making it better.  We have been organizing students to come to school on time and attend their classes, meeting with district officials, elected officials, and community members who are all as committed as we are in transforming our school to educate each and every one of us for our future.  But the road has not been easy.

On Monday, Philadelphia Student Union celebrated Martin Luther King's vision with a spirited rally outside the School District, a 600-person march down Broad Street, and a powerful service at Arch Street Methodist Church. Led by the young leaders of PSU, the event called for peace, justice and an end to all forms of violence. It was co-sponsored by 19 other organizations and attended by students, parents, teachers, and community members from every section of the city--as well as State Representative Vanessa Brown, Democratic candidate for Governor Joe Hoeffel, candidate for State Representative Will Mega, and Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams. There were so many inspiring speeches, songs and other moments--what made the biggest impression on you?

At PSU, students have put together some important New Years Resolutions for the School District of Philadelphia. 

Happy New Year! We have worked so hard on improving our schools that we should take time to relax (thou short lived) and reflect. So…  as we are all equal contributors of the Philadelphia School District (students, teachers, PSD Officials, and community members) here’s what we should be both reflecting upon and working on for the New Year.

When we think of King, what do we think about? Bus boycotts, great speaker, leader of the civil rights movement, but we never stop to think who is telling his story. At a young age I was taught that King was a civil rights activists and a civil rights activist only. What I did not know was that King understood that it was not just a colored person problem. It was bigger than that it was a poor person problem. So lets think when King begun to speak out against the Vietnam War. All of a sudden, the media turned on him.