Since 2011, historic state budget cuts totaling $2.3 BILLION have devastated Pennsylvania schools. Our children have lost 27,000 of their teachers, along with art, music, world languages, library, athletics, full day Kindergarten, transportation, field trips, textbooks, tutoring, and so much more. The de-funding of public education has gone hand in hand with a national “corporate-style-reform” movement that promotes privatization, high-stakes-testing, and mass school closures – all disproportionately affecting our poorest students and communities of color.
The good news is that people across the state – middle class and working class, black and white, Republican and Democratic, young and old – are coming together and fighting back. Be a part of the remarkable education justice movement in Southwest Pennsylvania fighting for great public schools for all our children. We are all volunteer parents, students, teachers, and community members. On this site, you will find space for conversation and civil debate as we ask questions and seek answers together. We are a movement, not an organization, and we may not all agree on everything, all the time: but together we are committed to keeping the focus on students and equity, evidence-based arguments, and saving public education as a public good.
We believe:
- State budgets must provide adequate, equitable, and sustainable public funding for public education. Everyone must pay their fair share.
- Education reform should address long-standing racial and class-based inequities. These include resource distribution, the disproportionate impact of school closures on communities of color, and inequitable disciplinary procedures that feed the school-to-prison pipeline.
- The public owns public education. We therefore oppose privatization, centralization of power, and mass school closures.
- Education justice demands the intentional inclusion of minority and historically excluded groups in decision making.
- Public policies must empower authentic parent engagement and protect student confidentiality.
- A robust democracy depends on informed civil discourse and transparent public debate.
- We can win when we work together with our grassroots colleagues here, across the state, and around the nation. Collaboration is essential and students are crucial leaders.
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- Joining us at an upcoming event to take action.
Yinzercation 