Below is a recent EdWeek opinion piece by educator Monica Washington, 2014 Texas teacher of the year. In the Advanced Placement American Literature course I taught for a decade, my students and I spent our time reading and analyzing writers who have been given a stamp of approval by being “canonized” for embodying the American … Continued
The results of the 2022 general election are still being sorted out, but there are already some significant wins for the education justice movement at the statewide level. Here are four we’re celebrating this week: California Voters approved Prop 28, which will increase state funding for arts and music programs in public schools: Supporters said … Continued
The mass killing of children is primitive and heartbreaking in any society. It is unfathomable that there are some who protect the conditions that make this possible in America in 2022. So once again, children, teachers, families, loved ones in Uvalde, Texas at Robb Elementary School are victims of gun violence. This year alone, students … Continued
The leaked draft Supreme Court ruling that would overturn Roe v. Wade is an attack on reproductive rights, health care, and the progress made by increasingly multiracial and intersectional feminist movements over the past several decades. As Schott President & CEO Dr. John H. Jackson wrote, the court “has abandoned decades of constitutional protections. It’s a brazen attack … Continued
The reactionary backlash against racial justice and LGBTQ movements over the past few years has once again put public schools center stage. Where did this backlash originate, and why is so much of it focused on “Critical Race Theory”?
Last week, closing arguments concluded for one of the most consequential education lawsuits in Pennsylvania’s history. The question: is the commonwealth’s school funding formula so inequitable that it runs afoul of the Pennsylvania Constitution? The stakes: billions of dollars for public schools and the futures of more than a million students.
Last spring, the people of New York State won a historic victory for their public schools: the state legislature finally began fulfilling a more equitable school funding formula, known as Foundation Aid. This win is near and dear to our hearts at Schott, as we were one of the first grantmakers to support this bold campaign at its start in 1993 and have supported the efforts ever since. New York Governor Kathy Hochul recently announced her proposed budget, which serves as a reminder that even after winning, advocates must keep up the pressure on policymakers to follow through.
The cause of racial justice extends across borders, issues, cultures, and economic sectors. This Black History Month, we encourage our partners and allies to renew our commitment to this insight and commit to funding, advocacy, and organizing strategies that encompass more than just single-issue causes.
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?
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.
