March Down Biscayne Blvd. Promotes Teaching In South Florida

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Teachers, students, parents, community organizations and elected officials marched down Biscayne Boulevard Friday to show support for better public schools.

The event called "Walk a Mile in Our Shoes" kicked off the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday weekend.

Those taking part in the march said they wanted to show support for less of a focus on testing and more on teaching.

"More support for our march is coming in every day," said United Teachers of Dade President Fedrick Ingram in a press release about the event.

"People are excited to walk a mile in the shoes of students, parents and teachers who deserve better schools.  Everyone gets it - when you test 80 days out of a 180-day school year, when revenues for our public schools are flat or falling, then our students aren't getting what they need to succeed in the 21st century. We're not waiting for the legislators to meet or for the ballots to be in the mail."

The groups taking part in the march the UTD, Miami-Dade NAACP, South Florida Central Labor Council, Miami-Dade County Council PTA/PTSA, Sant La Haitian Neighborhood Center and U.S. Representative Frederica Wilson.

"I am most definitely going to march," said Gepsie Metellus, Executive Director of the Haitian Neighborhood Center in the press release. "I'm marching January 17th in honor of all of those people who paved the way for communities like ours, the Haitian community.  I'm marching for our families, marching for our parents, for our caregivers, those who can't march, such that we reclaim this dream and the promise of public education."

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