2019 Education Justice Victories That Give Us Courage for 2020
Changing policies to achieve greater equity for children of color takes time, months, even years of dynamic mobilizing and building collaboration among parents, students, community members and educators. That’s why Schott builds and sustains long-term partnerships—they’re in it for the long haul and so are we. Grassroots organizing by our grantees and allies was the key to some key policy wins in 2019, all of which provide momentum for the important work ahead.
- Grassroots Organizing Won $1.5 Billion for Public Schools in Massachusetts
This year’s landmark Student Opportunity Act guarantees an additional $1.5 billion in funding for k-12 public schools across the commonwealth. This kind of dramatic shift in funding priorities only comes about when grassroots pressure builds from the bottom-up and makes a change inevitable: when the people lead, politicians must eventually listen. Schott is proud to have supported many of the groups involved in this multi-year effort.
Learn more about this important victory here.- Major Movement Toward Culturally-Responsive Education (CRE) in NYC
Building off the momentum of a big win in 2018, the New York City Department of Education announced in September that it would evaluate its core curriculum based in part on whether they include materials that represent students of different backgrounds, including race, class, sexual orientation, and disability status. In addition, advocates won a new fellowship program for 60 NYC teachers to develop new, more culturally-responsive curriculum materials. Schott partner the Coalition for Educational Justice (CEJ) took the lead in a diverse coalition that showed the country how youth, parents, and educators can fight for a public school system that better reflects and responds to their communities.
Learn more about the CRE victory here, and watch a webinar about culturally-responsive education featuring CEJ's Natasha Capers here.- A Historic Expansion of Title IX Coordinators in NYC
In June, the New York City Council approved $857,000 to hire seven Title IX coordinators for the city’s public schools, a dramatic increase from the existing one coordinator. Schott partner Girls for Gender Equity (GGE) has long been raising awareness among the public — and pressure on policymakers — about the crisis of gender-based violence, pushout and CONTINUE READING: 2019 Education Justice Victories That Give Us Courage for 2020 | Schott Foundation for Public Education
