Jersey Journal: Rally to demand better high school graduation rates

Group rallies in Jersey City to demand better high school graduation rates
by Paul Takahashi/ The Jersey Journal

About 50 Jersey City residents protested in front of Public School No. 11 today calling for the school district to improve the city's high schools.

Residents, school-age and older, gathered at the Martin Luther King, Jr. School on Bergen Avenue, toting signs and yelling chants such as, "Graduation for All" and "Education, not Incarceration."

The protest was organized by Parents and Communities United for Education (PCUE), the Jersey City chapter of the larger Statewide Education Organizing Committee that advocates for improvements in the education system of low-income school districts.

"We're here to highlight some of the shortcomings of the Jersey City school districts," said Loyda Golston, vice president of PCUE.

"We want graduation for all students in Jersey City. There's a schoolhouse to jail house mentality here. We want kids to have the equal opportunity to graduate and go on to college or trade school."

PCUE also called upon the Jersey City school district to set up tutoring centers in every school, to hire more guidance counselors and allow college scholarships for undocumented students to allow them to attend in-state colleges for the same rate as citizens.

School officials didn't immediately respond to comment.