Massachusetts

Education organizers and advocates from 18 cities across the country made a "Journey for Justice" to the nation's capitol this week to make their case in person against school closures. They testified at a hearing before the US Department of Education and even met with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan! They protested that the DOE's policies that favor closing underperforming schools rather than investing in them is doing irreparable harm to students by disrupting their communities and discriminating against schools serving primarily Black and Latino students.

Our grassroots allies from Journey for Justice are taking their fight to end school closures to the US Department of Education! Representatives from 18 cities across the country will testify at a hearing before the US DOE in Washington D.C. on Tuesday, January 28th, 2013. See this press release for more details. And follow Journey for Justice on Twitter @J4J_USA!

Hot on the heels of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's announcement of increased funding for early childhood education (ECE), Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick is calling for universal pre-K and a historic investment in the state's early learning programs.

Just as Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick unveiled a new education spending plan that calls for increased investment in and universal access to high-quality early childhood care and education (ECE), our allies at the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center released a report on the decline in spending on ECE in the state over the past decade. Their report makes clear that while the governor deserves commendation for his new focus on ECE, there is a lot of ground to make up for when it comes to ensuring our youngest children enter school ready to succeed.

Who better to talk about the challenges and opportunities young women of color face in education than the young women themselves? Check out this new must-see short film, "It's Our TIme: The Empathy Gap for Girls of Color," which features young women as the "experts and agents of their own learning experiences, offering examples of effective strategies and solutions for closing the opportunity gap." The film was produced as part of an ongoing project at the Wellesley Centers for Women, in partnership with the Boston-based Teen Voices magazine.

Need some help developing or advocating for policies in your state to tackle school pushout and end the school-to-prison pipeline? Then look no further than this newly released state policy guide from the Opportunity to Learn Campaign! The guide provides advocates and policymakers with recommendations for ending the ineffective and discriminatory practice of out-of-school suspensions as well as a summary of the significant action and legislative proposals that are already underway in states to address our national pushout crisis.

According to a new report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the gap between MA's richest and poorest households is the 8th largest in the country. To see what's driving that gap and how it affects issues like education, poverty and the minimum wage, our policy-savvy allies at the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center have released this helpful slideshow tool. Take a look!

We have to hand it to our youth allies at the Boston Student Advisory Council who take their advocacy work with them everywhere they go, from rallies and press conferences all the way to the halls and classrooms of Harvard University. Several BSAC members recently held a class for students of the university's Graduate School of Education on the successful efforts of BSAC and other allied youth groups across Boston to get student voices incorporated into teacher evaluations.