Fair and Just School Climate

With over 100 events in 52 cities hosted by more than 70 organizations, this year's National Week of Action Against School Pushout was the biggest yet! Get inspired by reading some of this year's highlights and join the movement for school discipline reform.

The national movement for school discipline reform has been growing rapidly in recent years, and especially so in California. This week, California became the first state to ban suspensions for "willful defiance" for K-3 students.

In California it costs $62,300 per year to imprison someone, but just $9,100 per year to teach a child. A powerful short video from Californians for Safety and Justice challenges us to "do the math" when it comes to expanding the criminal justice system or investing in schools.

Pre-k has always played well in public debate, but a new Gallup polls show just how much people like pre-k and how much they want to see it expanded. According to Gallup, 70% of Americans favor using federal money to fund universal pre-k.

The recent murder of Michael Brown by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, has sparked anger and protests across the country. It has led to important conversations about the criminalization of youth of color, the militarization of the police and what we can do to end such injustices.

In a recent commentary for Education Week, Kavitha Mediratta of Atlantic Philanthropies writes about the problems in our nation's discipline system – and the cities and communities that are changing things for the better.

Across the country, students, parents, and educators are organizing to change their school districts’ zero tolerance policies – and they’re winning. At the 2014 Netroots Nation conference in Detroit last weekend, advocates and organizers discussed the victories and continuing challenges in the movement for school discipline reform.

On July 1, Massachusetts took a bold step forward in the national school discipline reform movement when its new Chapter 222 law went into effect. To help advocates in other states learn how they, too, might tackle the school-to-prison pipeline, here’s how our Massachusetts coalition came together, fought hard, and won reform.