The Schott Foundation for Public Education and NYU Metro Center, in partnership with Race Forward’s H.E.A.L. Together campaign are providing rapid response financial and technical assistance to parent, youth and community organizing groups facing aggressive attacks against public education and equitable curriculum.

Now is the time for philanthropy to act – it is our moment to support grassroots organizing to challenge those threatening our democracy and turn up the fight for equitable and anti-racist schools and communities. Public education and democracy need our protection.

On February 24th, Schott co-convened an important funders-only conversation that featured:

• Dr. Gislaine N. Ngounou, Interim President & CEO, Nellie Mae Education Foundation
• Dr. Kent McGuire, Program Director, Education, William & Flora Hewlett Foundation
• Zakiyah Shaakir-Ansari, Advocacy Director, New York State Alliance for Quality Education
• Michael S. Wotorson, Director of the Opportunity to Learn Network, Schott Foundation
• Megan Hester, Education Justice Research and Organizing Collaborative, NYU Metro Center
• James Haslam, Senior Fellow, Race Forward

What’s At Stake

Dr. Ngounou began by setting out why we are all invested in this work: “we are all here today due to the continued attacks on our democracy and on public education at large, as it relates to teaching the truth, as it relates to acknowledging the truth of the real history of America and implementing just and equitable policies that impact young people, educators, and communities across our country. And we as funders are in a unique position to work in partnership with one another and with community stakeholders in this fight to preserve and to transform our public education ecosystem for good and for justice.”

Dr. Ngounou pointed out that attacks on public education are being successfully resisted and lifted up the important work in New Hampshire communities that Nellie Mae has funded.

Zakiyah Shaakir-Ansari reminded everyone that while threats to democracy, voting rights, civil rights, and LGBTQ rights are not new, this particular moment demands an escalation in our response to them: “we are here today to collectively pull together because we believe that a multiracial democracy requires an investment: not just of dollars, but of commitment, of compassion, of hope, inspiration, and love.”

Shaakir-Ansari and the Alliance for Quality Education have been doing this work for decades now, and are bringing their experience and expertise to HEAL Together campaign partners.

Insights from Data

Megan Hester detailed the research being done to study the backlash, and the data that informs HEAL Together’s work. Legislatively, 37 states have so far introduced bills attacking what can be taught in public schools, but only some of them have passed:

Hester highlighted some of the particularly insidious bills advancing in states like Virginia and Missouri, and noted that the attacks on curriculum are openly linked with longstanding efforts to attack public schools generally: “this is a play for further privatization of public schools, that it’s generating this sense that public schools have failed us, that they’re dangerous, that they’ve betrayed us, and that to get combined with the hardships of remote schooling that families are coming off of, really encouraging parents to pull their kids out of public schools.”

Hester also noted that what falls under the dogwhistle of “Critical Race Theory” for the far right is actually a wide range of ideas, practices, and pedagogy, far beyond what CRT means in an academic setting:

Perhaps most interesting was Hester’s discussion of recent data from UCLA researchers, who found that anti-CRT backlash activities were disproportionately found in districts that have had the highest change in racial composition over the past twenty years:

Hester concluded: “And we know the history of white backlashes. If we look historically, right after reconstruction, after the civil rights movement, after the Obama presidency, we know that white backlashes are brutal, and that they can be long lasting, and that the policies that they usher in are incredibly devastating. And so we are taking this very seriously, and we know that we need to bring everything we can to this moment to stop this legislation, and also to push back and to continue to advance the pro equity anti-racist policies that have been moving forward in school districts for the past few decades.”

Building — and Funding — a Movement to Face the Challenge

Race Forward’s James Haslam offered a roadmap for communities coming together, uniting against this racially-motivated division and reaffirming the importance of anti-racist education and our public schools.

“We are thrilled to be able to work in this effort to help support school district-centered organizing and education justice work across the states, and to partner with Metro and Schott on this,” Haslam said. “We think there’s an incredible opportunity to build a multiracial democracy by starting by investing in our school district organizing.”

Our H.E.A.L. Together campaign is providing a suite of technical support for local grassroots organizations, in addition to direct funding support:

Schott’s Michael S. Wotorson detailed the grantmaking strategy and the importance of philanthropy to support this urgent organizing work. As our #JusticeIsTheFoundation project shows, K-12 funders are woefully underfunding education justice movement. “These organizations cannot win this fight on their own. They need our support. They need our involvement,” Wotorson said.

Hewlett Foundation’s Kent McGuire described the journey that his organization has been on, moving racial equity and justice to a more prominent place in their portfolio. “We see education in the public schools as a key to a viable democracy. So we didn’t think we could just sit on the sidelines in the face of all these efforts to undermine confidence in our schools,” McGuire said. “So we concluded that we did need to bring resources.”

What to Do Now

Organizers and activists can join H.E.A.L. Together here. Potential donors and those in philanthropy should reach out to Lauren Hadi to learn how you can best participate in the HEAL Together campaign and support communities building equity and justice on the frontlines across the country.

Special thanks to our philanthropic partners for this event: Nellie Mae Education Foundation, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Raikes Foundation, and Charles and Lynn Schusterman Foundation.

View the entire briefing here: