Tell Newt Gingrich: Give kids better schools, don't turn them into janitors

Tell Newt Gingrich: Give kids better schools, don't turn them into janitors

The Issue

America's failing schools are terrible for our kids, especially those in low-income communities. Recently, presidential candidate Newt Gingrich suggested that instead of focusing on fixing these schools, we should loosen child labor laws to so that students could work as janitors.

At a recent speech at Harvard, Gingrich said, "We say to someone, you shouldn't go to work before you're what, 14, 16 years of age? Fine. You're totally poor. You're in a school that's failing with a teacher that's failing... most of these schools should get rid of the unionized janitors, have one master janitor and pay local students to take care of the school."

We agree that too many kids are stuck in failing schools. But, the answer isn't to say kids can't learn and instead we should shuffle them off to do manual labor. We can't build stronger, smarter communities by writing off kids and their futures. Every child can learn when we set high expectations, provide them with the resources they need to succeed and hold ourselves accountable for their progress.

Tell Newt Gingrich that instead of turning our students into janitors, we should be fixing our broken school system.

avatar of the starter
StudentsFirstPetition StarterPatton has spent years making an impact as an organizer, campaign manager and consultant. Online and off, his clients have consistently won tough campaigns, raising millions of dollars, driving millions of actions, moving millions of voters, and picking up a couple of Pollie Awards along the way. As a campaigner, he's run legislative races in the middle of nowhere and coordinated government relations efforts for large national advocacy groups. As a consultant, Patton developed media and strategy for Democratic candidates and unions as Senior Strategist at Compass Media Group in Chicago, provided fundraising and advocacy strategy for major nonprofits as Senior Account Executive at Donordigital in Berkeley, and did a fair bit of solo work in those fields. As Senior Campaign Strategist at <a href="http://Change.org" rel="nofollow">Change.org</a>, he can't wait to tie it all together. Patton is a graduate of the University of Chicago. He lives in Oakland with his wife and a pretty awesome puppy.
Media inquiries
This petition had 5,008 supporters

The Issue

America's failing schools are terrible for our kids, especially those in low-income communities. Recently, presidential candidate Newt Gingrich suggested that instead of focusing on fixing these schools, we should loosen child labor laws to so that students could work as janitors.

At a recent speech at Harvard, Gingrich said, "We say to someone, you shouldn't go to work before you're what, 14, 16 years of age? Fine. You're totally poor. You're in a school that's failing with a teacher that's failing... most of these schools should get rid of the unionized janitors, have one master janitor and pay local students to take care of the school."

We agree that too many kids are stuck in failing schools. But, the answer isn't to say kids can't learn and instead we should shuffle them off to do manual labor. We can't build stronger, smarter communities by writing off kids and their futures. Every child can learn when we set high expectations, provide them with the resources they need to succeed and hold ourselves accountable for their progress.

Tell Newt Gingrich that instead of turning our students into janitors, we should be fixing our broken school system.

avatar of the starter
StudentsFirstPetition StarterPatton has spent years making an impact as an organizer, campaign manager and consultant. Online and off, his clients have consistently won tough campaigns, raising millions of dollars, driving millions of actions, moving millions of voters, and picking up a couple of Pollie Awards along the way. As a campaigner, he's run legislative races in the middle of nowhere and coordinated government relations efforts for large national advocacy groups. As a consultant, Patton developed media and strategy for Democratic candidates and unions as Senior Strategist at Compass Media Group in Chicago, provided fundraising and advocacy strategy for major nonprofits as Senior Account Executive at Donordigital in Berkeley, and did a fair bit of solo work in those fields. As Senior Campaign Strategist at <a href="http://Change.org" rel="nofollow">Change.org</a>, he can't wait to tie it all together. Patton is a graduate of the University of Chicago. He lives in Oakland with his wife and a pretty awesome puppy.
Media inquiries

The Decision Makers

Newt Gingrich
Newt Gingrich

Petition Updates

Share this petition

Petition created on November 29, 2011