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In grassroots activism for the preservation of and investment in public schools, parents, teachers, students, and community members organize to advocate for the necessity of public schools in a democratic society. Protesting corporate takeover of current education reform, grassroots organizations across the U.S. challenge the advancement of for-profit, corporate agendas through the privatization of the education sector. These grassroots organizations advocate for public school stakeholders (parents, students, teachers, and community members) to be at the center of education policy, rather than corporations and wealthy individuals. They contest policies that harm public schools, such as vouchers that transport public school funds to private schools, standardized testing that results in teaching to the test and arbitrary judgments of success/failure, school closures that shut down rather than support public schools, and the growth of charter schools and their lack of regulation.
Through rallies, protests, teach-ins, and press releases, grassroots organizations increase awareness concerning the detrimental effects of privatization and corporate reform on public schools. Grassroots Education Movement, GEMNYC, even produced a documentary, The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman*, as a counter-narrative to the film, Waiting for Superman.1 In their documentary, GEMNYC debunks the idea that increased access to charter schools and increased testing standards are a means for education reform. Along with raising awareness, grassroots organizations also provide research and data to support their cause, and unite with fellow activists and supporters of public education. By forming coalitions and organizing conferences/protests, they demand that their concerns be heard. In order to change corporate policies, however, grassroots organizations are largely reliant on legislators. As such, they promote the election of politicians who support public education, lobby on behalf of public education, appeal to policymakers through mass emails, and even attempt to make legislators accountable by ranking them based on how they voted on bills concerning public education.9
Grassroots organizations advocating for the public nature of public schools face numerous challenges. To begin, it is largely believed that public schools are failing. The No Child Left Behind policy has labeled many public schools, teachers, and students as failures, and has led to public school closures.2 In contrast, private and privately managed schools are largely believed to provide a better education, though they are not held accountable in the same manner as public schools and do not educate the same demographic of students.43 These false set of beliefs result in a lack of support for public schools. Lack of resources, budget cuts, increased class sizes, and high-stakes testing all serve to undermine public schools. Meanwhile, there is an increasing support for charter schools and privatization efforts. Currently dominated by corporate reformers, education reform lacks democratic school governance and voice. Grassroots organizations are working to fill this void, as they demand equitable funding, smaller class sizes, less testing, community leadership, experienced educators, and increased accountability for charter schools.
*GEMNYC’s documentary, The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman, was released in 2011. While the full documentary can be found here, this trailer provides a snapshot:13