Where we’ve been; what lies ahead
As the new school year begins, PAA has asked its chapters and affiliates to provide descriptions of the past year’s activities and what they’re planning for this year. We’ll be posting these descriptions a few at a time, starting with our Pennsylvania affiliates, Parents United for Public Education and Yinzercation.
Founded in 2006, Parents United for Public Education is a parent-led citywide organization focused on engaging parents with the budget process in order to ensure a baseline level of resources, services, and staffing provides every child in every school a stable, quality and nurturing school environment. We provide an independent parent voice to challenge perceptions of disengaged parents or “broken” families and school communities. Our parents have testified on budgets and tax policy, rallied at our state capitol for greater funding, led keynotes and served as conference panelists to build a parent voice in this dialogue.
Founded in 2006, Parents United for Public Education is a parent-led citywide organization focused on engaging parents with the budget process in order to ensure a baseline level of resources, services, and staffing provides every child in every school a stable, quality and nurturing school environment. We provide an independent parent voice to challenge perceptions of disengaged parents or “broken” families and school communities. Our parents have testified on budgets and tax policy, rallied at our state capitol for greater funding, led keynotes and served as conference panelists to build a parent voice in this dialogue.
We’ve focused on a rich and multicultural teaching and learning environment and called for safe school communities with a bias-free, restorative justice approach to climate as well as discipline. We’ve challenged privatization, successfully filed ethics complaints to improve transparency and democratic processes, and called for collaborative partnerships with teachers and parents. We’ve secured millions of dollars in funding and made public education a top electoral priority in our city and in our state. In a city segregated by class and race, we’re working to build multiracial coalitions of parents to improve school practices, fight for renewed funding, and build public support for our schools. We’ve shown that an independent, organized and engaged parent body can clarify budget priorities and rebuild a sense of collective responsibility for all our children. We invite all people concerned about Philadelphia’s future to join us in this effort.
Faced with an unprecedented budget crisis last year, Parents United for Public Education organized the filing of more than 800 formal complaints from over 90 different schools alleging that the lack of funding and resources violated the Pennsylvania state code. Six weeks after we began our campaign, the Governor released $45 million that restored hundreds of counselors, special education services, and other school-based staff. Our campaign also helped eliminate more than 100 split grades created as a result of the budget cuts and provided transportation to one community of parents dealing with a traumatic school merger. We worked with our media partners to do a video tour of Philadelphia public schools called Revival from the Roots. We filed and won an ethics complaint against a wealthy education reform group whose work violated lobbying reporting requirements.
Perhaps our most dramatic victory was a parent vote at two public schools targeted for charter conversion. Parents United worked with parents to support an open, transparent and informed process. By a margin of more than two to one, parents at both schools voted overwhelmingly to stay public and to demand an
- See more at: http://parentsacrossamerica.org/been-lies/
