Teachers’ Federation of Puerto Rico relentless in ongoing battle to save public schools, rebuilding the island

After two major hurricanes, Puerto Rico was left to rebuild its infrastructure and institutions. Discontinuing public education has been on the agenda, but local teachers continue to fiercely fend off privatizing local schools.

For the past three decades, public school teachers have fought the privatization of public education, but in the rebuilding of the island, the Department of Education announced plans to permanently schools that were closed from the hurricane damage with plans to re-open them as charter schools.

In a tense battle, teachers have boycotted, protested and held fasts to fight turning the public education school system into a cash cow for corporations.

This documentary shows the grassroots fight led by radical teachers’ union, Federación de Maestros de Puerto Rico (FMPR).

Jennifer Wager is a filmmaker and documentarian. Her film, Dare to Dream, is an award winning documentary about Cuba’s Latin American Medical School, the largest scholarship based medical school in the world. She also is a communications professor and director communications at an NJ college and is the director of film submissions for Newark International Film Festival. The story is part of the Ark Republic’s inaugural major collaborative project, the Hurricane Trifiecta: One Year Later.