Fair and Just School Resources

In June the Schott Foundation hosted a special extended-length webinar diving deep into implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act. While discussing the minutiae of education policy is rarely an exciting activity, the panelists on our webinar showed how important it is that advocates and community members know how ESSA works: the future of our children’s education depends on it.

Since their founding, local public schools and their educators have produced America’s most brilliant artists, scientists, doctors, musicians, lawyers, presidents, and more — people from all walks of life, contributing to society in a myriad of ways. The neighborhood public school is often the center of a civic and cultural life, recognized as the key to each community's future. The fate of public schools affect the fate of everyone: it's why they were one of the first institutions built by freed slaves during Reconstruction, and why they were so central to desegregating our towns and cities a century later.

And while the struggle continues to make our public schools more equitable and just for every child, we must also celebrate and protect those aspects that are now under threat by privatization, disinvestment, and resegregation. That's why the Schott Foundation is proud to lift up some of the countless success stories that our public schools produce every year from coast to coast.

From their establishment more than a century ago, local public schools and their educators have produced America’s most brilliant artists, scientists, doctors, musicians, lawyers, presidents, and more.

At our 25th Anniversary Awards Gala, the Schott Foundation showcased several talented student artists from New York City public schools to highlight the importance of the arts and music in all our public schools, regardless of neighborhood or ZIP code.

Partnerships have the potential to build power. On March 31, Schott hosted a webinar, the penultimate of our 25th Anniversary series, “When Community and Labor Join Forces: Parent, Student and Teacher Partnerships”, to highlight lessons from the successful Chicago Teachers Union Strike in 2012, and the partnerships that carried the movement to victory. The story of the Chicago strike provides many lessons for public education advocates, particularly in how to build the kind of cross-sector relationships and alliances that find common ground.

Building Movement Project Co-Director Sean Thomas-Breitfeld moderated the online discussion between Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis and Action Now Executive Director Katelyn Johnson.