New Webinar: Investing in Safe, Supportive and Police-Free Schools

Tuesday May 7th, 2019 • 2:00 - 3:00pm ET

We're teaming up with Girls for Gender Equity and the Advancement Project for our latest webinar!

Black and Brown students are demanding that their school districts end the school-to-prison pipeline and invest in solutions that create a true sense of safety, dignity and opportunity for learning. They are advocating for schools that are sufficiently resourced, affirm their identities, provide culturally responsive social and emotional learning, and offer mental health supports to students who need them. Students are also calling on school officials to decriminalize their learning environments from racially unjust policies and practices — including the removal of police from our schools.
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Students Can't Learn When They're Not Healthy. Here's What Schools Can Do to Help

Children with chronic health concerns can't learn when their poorly managed conditions keep them out of class. Students traumatized by unstable living conditions or chronic disadvantage can't focus on homework or engage their peers. Parents working full-time jobs for minimum wage cannot afford the same extracurricular, health, and academic supports that wealthier families purchase to help their children get ahead. Every year, more research supports the common-sense notion that academic success is inextricably linked to a child's health, housing, and family income—and underscores the urgent need for more support.
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Questioning Big Philanthropy: Is It Too Powerful And Out Of Touch?

Typically older white men control most of the fortunes and purse strings when it comes to philanthropy; they hire experts who are often well-educated to devise solutions to problems like poverty, lack of health care and lack of education—all without getting input from the people who are meant to benefit from the services being funded. Or as panelist Edgar Villanueva, author of the book Decolonizing Wealth, put it: "Philanthropy is top-down, closed-door and expert-driven." Villaneuva works as a vice president at the Schott Foundation for Public Education, so he knows the sector well. His advice: "We need to show up and listen to understand what a community wants."
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Schott Partners with Journey For Justice — Here's How You Can Help

The Journey for Justice Alliance (J4J) is a diverse, intergenerational network of 35 community-based organizations in 22 cities. J4J is organizing to build Black- and Brown-led multiracial coalitions to win victories for public education equity at the local and national level. During April, we’re engaged in a new strategy of support — Schott is providing matching funds for every dollar contributed to J4J’s grassroots fundraising campaign, 30 Days to Make a Way.
Learn more about J4J and donate today >

Asleep at the Wheel: How the Federal Charter Schools Program Recklessly Takes Taxpayers and Students for a Ride

A new report by the Network for Public Education details their two-month examination of the U.S. Department of Education’s Charter Schools Program. Our investigation found a troubling pattern of insufficient applicant review, contradictions between information provided by applicants and available public data, the gifting of funds to schools with inadequate financial and governance plans, a push-out of large grants to the states with little supervision by the department, and the waste of hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.
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‘It’s Basically Jail’: Inside NYC’s Suspension Centers

According to more than a dozen interviews with students, center staff, and advocates, the suspension centers are dull at best and chaotic at worst, sometimes derailing students academically and failing to address the problems that landed them out-of-school suspensions in the first place. Academic expectations are often low; in some cases, students say they spent their days filling out worksheets that have little to do with the coursework from their original schools, watched movies, or slept. Lots of students don’t show up at all.
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