Schott kicks off its 30th anniversary year with a thought-provoking look at the Kerner Commission’s dramatic 1968 report calling out systemic racism — boldly stating it was not a lack of solutions that distances our nation from justice, but the lack of public will to implement them. The education and racial justice movement is building power, forging public will for change. What role will philanthropy play to support them in this justice moment?
Facing the twin threats of the Omicron variant and intransigent policymakers, high school students across the country are refusing to return to unsafe classrooms. Public schools, especially those that serve predominantly BIPOC students, have had poor air quality long before COVID-19. After a winter break filled with record-breaking infection rates and hospitals stretched past capacity, many students refuse to put themselves, their classmates, and their loved ones at unnecessary risk.
The Journey for Justice Alliance (J4J), a longtime Schott grantee partner, has been at the forefront of the fight for racial equity and justice in our public schools and communities. J4J’s National Director, Jitu Brown, writes in the Chicago Tribune to connect the outrageous abuse of Black and brown kids at the hands of the criminal justice system with the systemic injustices found in the schools they attend.
In March, 1968, while much of the national media’s attention was fixed on the presidential election campaign, Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference were organizing a campaign of a different sort: the Poor People’s Campaign. In this politically charged environment the Kerner Commission Report exploded onto the scene. In response to Black rebellions in cities across the country, the Johnson Administration had assembled The Natonal Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, chaired by Illinois Governor Otto Kerner. The report’s findings, surprising even Johnson himself, took a detailed look at the root causes of unrest in America and proposed solutions as bold as the ills confronting the nation.
Black Lives Matter movement. Presidential Executive Order on Racial Equity. Guilty verdict for Derek Chauvin. Signs that our nation is moving toward long overdue reckoning for racial justice. In the state capitols? There are inspiring wins that move us toward justice—and then backlash, anti-democracy, moves us in the opposite direction. While the pandemic—that we thought was nearing an end, but wasn’t—and the national news often dominate the headlines, it’s only by looking at what’s moving in the states that you find the optimism earned by hard-won organizing victories for justice and understand the scale of the daunting challenges that remain.
2021 was a year of collective healing and reflection. It also came with a series of reactionary setbacks. However, education and racial justice advocates continued to organize across the country. Here are some policy and organizing victories from the past year that give us hope for 2022!
Throughout 2021 we worked closely with our grassroots grantee partners to advance racially just policies and initiatives to provide all students an opportunity to learn through public education. As a BIPOC-led national fund and movement building organization, we seek to dramatically increase the capacity of community organizations in three regions, Northeast, South and West.
We asked eight education justice leaders what they’ve learned during 2021.
Against a backdrop of an ongoing pandemic and political attacks on public education, our grassroots grantee partners have achieved major education justice victories – supported by funders like Schott investing for the long term in community organizing.
A lawsuit seven years in the making holds the possibility of dramatically revamping Pennsylvania’s property tax-driven system of school funding. Last week the lawsuit finally went to trial, led by the Public Interest Law Center and the Education Law Center – PA.
Michael S. Wotorson recently joined the Schott Foundation for Public Education as our new Director of the National Opportunity to Learn Network. A longtime advocate and funder in the racial justice space, we asked him what he thinks of the present moment and what he sees for the future.
