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Education Justice Victories That Give Us Hope for 2025
Education and racial justice advocates continued to organize in 2024, with victories won in states and communities across the country.
Here are a few of our grantee partners’ movement victories from the past year that give us hope for 2025:
Parents, students, and educators win against voucher schemes
In Tennessee, Statewide Organizing for Community Empowerment (SOCM) and allies built a cross-sector campaign against the governor’s proposed voucher scheme, which would cost hundreds of millions in tax dollars.
By mobilizing communities in every county, advocates built a pro-public school consensus and halted the legislation’s process, stopping privatization in its tracks.
Massachusetts voters reject high stakes standardized tests — and reap benefits of more school funding
Thanks to a groundswell of coalition organizing across the commonwealth over many years, including members of the Massachusetts Education Justice Alliance, a ballot measure finally eliminated the MCAS standardized test as a high school graduation requirement, a victory that promises an easing of the dropout crisis, less pressure for educators to teach to the test, and the development of more equitable systems to measure student achievement.
Meanwhile, the recent successes in the Student Opportunity Act and Fair Share Amendment have brought more funding and resources to the commonwealth’s most impacted students and schools. The funds from Fair Share are providing free breakfast and lunch to all public school students, free community college, and much more.
The Education Justice Movement Deepens in North Carolina
Organizations across North Carolina are extending their reach and growing a base of parents, youth, and educators dedicated to education justice.
The HEAL Together North Carolina coalition has trained more than 800 community members across 70 counties in their Public School Strong campaign, pushing to protect and transform public education at the local level while driving education justice.
The Education Justice Alliance (EJA) held its first ever “Too Young To Suspend” Parent Power Institute, which deepened parents’ understanding of exclusionary discipline practices in early childcare systems and allowed EJA to launch our first community participatory research project to develop recommendations to end these harmful practices.
The important coalition work of the Center for Racial Equity in Education (CREED) resulted in the launch of the Represent! Campaign. The campaign invites students, educators, school leaders, policymakers, community members, and organizations with shared values to unite around four goals that will lead to a more equitable education system for all North Carolinians.
Major School Budget Cuts Averted in Providence
The Providence Student Union has been fighting for students in Providence, Rhode Island for more than twenty years. In 2024, youth organizers with PSU joined coalition partners to halt major budget cuts planned for the district. PSU was critical to ensuring youth voice in opposition to the cuts and to demand the city fund its schools, testifying before policymakers, speaking to the press, and helping organize a student walk-out, rally, and march to city hall. Amid intense public pressure, the city settled with the district in court to provide full funding and avoid any budget cuts.
AP African American Studies returns to the classroom in Georgia
In July, Gwinnett County Public Schools issued a letter to their students announcing the sudden discontinuation of funding for the AP African American Studies course, deeming it illegal. In response to this racially inequitable policy, the Partnership for Southern Equity’s YES! for Equity hosted a youth-led community forum titled Advocacy for AP African American Studies – Don’t Silence Our History.
The following week, the YES! for Equity team demanded that the course be made available to all students in Georgia, including those in Gwinnett County who were denied access for the 2024-25 school year, at an in-person legislative session at the Georgia State Capitol. State Superintendent Woods ultimately overturned the decision, and the course is now fully funded and available to students for the 2024-25 school year.
More funding for community schools and more voice for students in California
Californians for Justice (CFJ) fights for equitable and just public schools across the state. Despite a difficult state budget season, the $4 billion advocates had secured for funding community schools was preserved for another year, ensuring community schools received the funding needed to continue their transformative work.
And this past November, 16- and 17-year-olds in Berkeley and Oakland voted in school board races for the first time ever, thanks to the tireless work of CFJ and coalition partners.
