Tennessee

Providing every child with a fair and substantive opportunity to learn is nothing less than a moral imperative. But as parent and student organizers across the country know all too well, today's education policies, which push competition and privatization, are not sufficient for "addressing the structural inequities that make separate and unequal education a persistent fact of life in America today," writes Rev. Jesse Jackson in a must-read column for CNN.

If it takes a village to raise a child, the same village must share accountability when many children are educationally abandoned. In New York City, the nation’s largest school system, on average student outcomes and their opportunity to learn are more determined by the neighborhood where a child lives, than his or her abilities.

New Study: It costs almost $11,000 more per year to live near high-quality schools than low-quality schools. This "housing cost gap," which is the result of exclusionary zoning policies, means that low-income students are less likely to attend good schools, thereby denying them access to the educational opportunities they need to succeed and escape poverty. 

The more we focus on testing and market-based reforms, the less we'll be able to learn and replicate from countries like Finland. Equity is a central component Finnish education policy. It isn't in the U.S. 

According to a new report, Pre-K enrollment has doubled in the U.S. over the past ten years. But because of budget cuts, state per-child spending for Pre-K programs has decreased dramatically. 

The stakes are high in education reform, what with needing to adequately prepare our children to maintain our nation's economic vitality, international competitiveness and democratic vibrancy. But the policymakers that are pushing for more privatization in our public schools are gambling our children's education - and our nation's future - on a lousy hand of reform policies. 

How is it that education policymakers can profess to respect teachers while at the same time ignoring national teacher opinion polls and instead supporting policies like merit pay based on test scores, competitive grants, and the expansion of online learning and charter schools?

If you ever doubt the ability of community organizing to influence debates on public education reform, check out some of these recent success stories. From Pennsylvania to Florida, parent, students and educators across the country are influencing public will and making their voices heard in their local governments.