Blog
"Cities for Citizenship"A Discussion on How Cities Can Promote Citizenship
Join CPD, Local Progress, and the National Partnership for New Americans
June 3rd at 2pm Eastern – Webinar. Please click here to RSVP.
High fees and the lack of help navigating the naturalization process keep many low-income immigrants from pursuing the dream of citizenship. Join leading immigrant rights advocates and municipal officials to learn about innovative new approaches cities are undertaking to support naturalization for immigrants.
Featured speakers include: Angelica Salas, Executive Director of CHIRLA and NPNA Executive Committee, Linda Lopez, Chief of the Office of Immigrant Affairs in the Los Angeles Mayor’s Office, Adolfo Hernandez, Director of the Mayor's Office of New Americans in Chicago, Nisha Agarwal, Commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs in the New York City, Mayor Rahm Emanuel of Chicago (Invited), and Emily Tucker, Staff Attorney, Center for Popular Democracy (Moderator).
This month, the Home Defenders League partnered with the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society at UC Berkeley to promote a new academic study, “Underwater America: How the So-Called Housing ‘Recovery’ is Bypassing Many Communities.” The Home Defenders League is a membership organization of families affected by the housing crisis with 25 partner groups including the Center for Popular Democracy, Right to the City Alliance and Alliance for a Just Society and local groups like ACCE and Occupy Homes chapters.
The new report uncovers the depth of the housing problem that persists in many communities, as well as the extent to which the legacy of predatory lending has resulted in a disproportionate, negative impact on African American and Latino communities.
At the end of 2013 more than 9.8 million American households, representing 19.4% of all mortgaged homes, still owed more than the value of their homes. Underwater homeowners are significantly more likely to default on their mortgages than homeowners with positive equity.
The report recommends that loan holders should reduce the principal on underwater mortgages to their current market value. It also recommends that if loan holders are unwilling or unable to reduce principal then they should allow publicly owned or nonprofit entities to buy the loans to enable them to restructure them. The report further recommends that local municipalities should use all the tools at their disposal, including eminent domain, to reset mortgages to their current market values and to turn vacant homes into affordable housing.
An important and timely contribution to this issue, the report was covered well by national and local media outlets with articles in, among others, The Chicago Tribune, The Orlando Sentinel, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, The Hartford Courant, The Modesto Bee as well as coverage by Reuters. Several local broadcast television affiliates also picked up the story including San Francisco's CBS station and an Op-Ed by one of the report’s authors, Peter Drier, was published in the New York Times.
The Center for Popular Democracy Enters the National Debate During "Charter School Week"
Last week, the Center for Popular Democracy (CPD) partnered with Integrity in Education to release a report entitled “Charter School Vulnerabilities to Waste, Fraud, and Abuse.” The report was designed to increase awareness around charter industry oversight and accountability.
The report details over $100 million in fraud, waste, and abuse perpetrated by charter school officials. Its publication coincided with a vote in the House of Representatives that sought to give $300 million in funding to charters with little oversight attached. The report was cited on the House floor and in statements by members who voted no on H.R. 10, and Ed Schultz featured it during a discussion of the House bill on his MSNBC program.
The report received strong media coverage by outlets and education experts including The Washington Post, Salon, Bill Moyers, The Nation, Diane Ravitch, and Education Week.
In addition to the report, we also launched an online petition urging lawmakers to include meaningful oversight provisions within the new law. The petition collected nearly 16,000 signatures in five days and was used by our partner organizations all across the country to engage their members.
Despite the charter industry getting their bill through the Republican-led House, we were able to initiate a vital conversation on oversight and school privatization before the Senate decides whether to take action. Importantly, we were able to provide a counter-narrative during "National Charter School Week," which the charter industry has created to overlap with Teacher Appreciation Week.
The release of the "Charter School Vulnerabilities" report marks the beginning of our campaign to increase the level of charter oversight on a national, state and municipal level.
Read more coverage:
Washington Post - May 6, 2014, by Valerie Strauss - A new report by two groups that oppose reforms that are privatizing public education finds fraud and waste totaling more than $100 million of taxpayer funds in 15 of the 42 states that operate charter schools. The report, titled “Charter School Vulnerabilities to Waste, Fraud, & Abuse,” and released by the nonprofit organizations Integrity in Education and the Center for Popular Democracy, cites news reports and criminal complaints from around the country that detail how some charter school operators have illegally used public money.
Salon - May 7, 2014, by Paul Rosenberg - Just in time for National Charter School Week, there’s a new report highlighting the predictable perils of turning education into a poorly regulated business. Titled “Charter School Vulnerabilities to Waste, Fraud and Abuse,” the report focused on 15 states representing large charter markets, out of the 42 states that have charter schools. Drawing on news reports, criminal complaints, regulatory findings, audits and other sources, it “found fraud, waste and abuse cases totaling over $100 million in losses to taxpayers.”
Bill Moyers - May 5, 2014, by Joshua Holland - Charter school operators want to have it both ways. When they’re answering critics of school privatization, they say charter schools are public — they use public funds and provide students with a tuition-free education. But when it comes to transparency, they insist they have the same rights to privacy as any other private enterprise.
The Nation - May 9, 2014, by Zoë Carpenter - Between 2003 and 2008, a Minnesota charter school executive named Joel Pourier embezzled more than $1.3 million from his school, the Oh Day Aki Charter School. While students at Oh Day Aki went without field trips and supplies for lack of funds, Pourier bought houses and cars and tossed bills at strippers. Because his school received federal funding—charter schools are privately run but many receive significant public financing—taxpayers were, in effect, subsidizing his lavish lifestyle.
Education Week - May 7, 2014, by Katie Ash - An examination of charter schools in 15 charter markets across the United States has exposed nearly $100 million in losses due to fraud, waste, and abuse, says a report from Integrity in Education and the Center for Popular Democracy. The report gathered court cases, media investigations, regulatory findings, audits, and other sources from Arizona, California, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin.
The Center for Popular Democracy has partnered with Make the Road New York and the Build Up NYC coalition to protect worker safety as industry executives and lobbyists have sought to gut the Scaffold Safety Law, a crucial protection for vulnerable construction workers. And our efforts have been fruitful: Governor Cuomo recently announced that the scaffold law will survive industry attacks this legislative session.
For years, real estate developers and construction executives have sought to the gut the law, which holds employers liable for worker injuries from falls. This year, they even paid for an $82,000 "study" to argue that the safety law was ineffective, which our research quickly debunked, leading to the State University of New York to distance itself from the industry-funded report.
Our report, "Fatally Flawed," written in partnership with the New York Committee on Occupational Safety and Health, played a key role in debunking the industry's argument and exposing a front group working on behalf of developers and executives.
The Center for Popular Democracy and the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health are proud partners in the newly launched Scaffold Safety Coalition. The Scaffold Safety Coalition is a diverse group of workers, advocates and organizations committed to protecting construction workers in New York State, creating a unified front in the fight to defend New York’s Scaffold Safety Law from industry-backed efforts to gut the law. More information is available at: www.scaffoldsafetylaw.com.
Read the full report, "Fatally Flawed: Why the Rockefeller Institute's Scaffold Law Report Doesn't Add Up" for evidence and details: http://populardemocracy.org/news/fatally-flawed-why-rockefeller-institute-s-scaffold-law-report-doesn-t-add
"Industry front groups are putting construction profits first when they mislead the public to obscure the real stakes of this debate: workers' lives and safety on the job," said Josie Duffy, policy advocate at the Center for Popular Democracy. "The Scaffold Safety Law saves lives. Gutting it, as some are advocating, will harm workers and disproportionately put Latino and immigrant workers at risk. These groups should be ashamed of themselves for spending $82,000 on a junk report instead of making sure the workers who build our cities have the protection they need."
In addition to our research, CPD played a front-line role in the campaign to protect the Scaffold Safety Law. With our partners at Make the Road New York and the Build Up NYC coalition, we coordinated a protest at a luxury residential real estate development that hires non-union labor and does not take precautions to ensure worker safety.
In the past month, two workers have been hurt at the Starwood/JDS construction site in New York City. The building is being renovated to become a luxury condo with units selling for between $1.5- 9 million each. With developers pouring tens of millions of dollars into the building, we stood with community members and leaders to demand JDS invests in creating a safe construction site.
Construction workers’ safety should be improved by protecting and enforcing the New York State Scaffold Law, which requires owners and contractors to provide appropriate and necessary equipment, such as safe hoists, ladders, and scaffolds. The law holds owners and contractors fully liable if their failure to follow the law causes a worker to be injured or killed.
Watch Policy Advocate Josie Duffy explain why the Scaffold Law is necessary to protect construction workers.
CPD thanks all of our partners who helped make this victory possible, and we will continue to protect workers from industry bad actors who seek to gut safety laws.
On April 1st, Mayors, homeowners and advocates called on federal officials to stand with local communities, including Irvington and Richmond, over Wall Street lobbyists that have threatened illegal retaliation against their cities because of an anti-foreclosure program known as Local Principal Reduction.
In a telephone press conference, Mayor Gayle McLaughlin of Richmond, CA, and Mayor Wayne Smith of Irvington, NJ, released two letters signed by more than two dozen local officials from across the country -- one to Mel Watt, the Director of FHFA, and one to Attorney General Eric Holder -- along with 11,000 signatures from around the country asking that the Department of Justice investigate fair housing violations by SIFMA, the leading lobby organization for Wall Street mortgage securities traders.
McLaughlin and Smith lead cities on opposite ends of the country with large populations of underwater homeowners, specifically homeowners who are people of color. Both of their cities have initiated steps toward beginning a new local foreclosure prevention program known as Local Principal Reduction or "reverse eminent domain.”
“Although separated by two coasts; today Richmond and Irvington spoke with one voice," Mayor Smith said. "The friendly condemnation of toxic mortgages is necessary to save our main streets from the predatory tactics of wall street. I stand proudly with Mayor McLaughlin in the fight to keep our citizens in their homes.”
The letters were transmitted to Watt and Holder via email today and have also been sent via US Postal Service.
- The letter to Watt along with full list of signatories here:https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzgxE4tCqjPOTkxRelZYZ2NXRkk/edit?usp=sharing
- The letter to Holder along with full list of signatories here:https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BzgxE4tCqjPOSzdaZ0hqVVNRUk0/edit
Under previous leadership at the FHFA (under Watt's predecessor Ed DeMarco), officials took an aggressive stance against Local Principal Reduction in a way that harmed communities of color. The ACLU, ACLU of Northern California, ACLU of New Jersey, and the Center for Popular Democracy, on behalf of the Home Defenders League, the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, and a group of community organizations, filed a FOIA request to find out why.
“For years, cities and communities of color were targeted by predatory lending practices and sold toxic subprime mortgages, resulting in a foreclosure crisis,” said Udi Ofer, Executive Director of the ACLU of New Jersey. “Now those same cities that were targeted by predatory lending should be able to consider their full range of options to rescue homes from foreclosure, and to stabilize communities that are facing blight because of discriminatory lending practices.”
In response to the FOIA request, FHFA produced over 1,000 pages of records, detailing extensive contact between the financial industry and high-level FHFA officials. Last week, the FHFA produced another 450 pages of records. The records include a series of emails that show FHFA’s senior officials followed instructions from SIFMA, a leading financial industry trade association, to intervene when San Bernardino, California, was considering Local Principal Reduction using eminent domain solution.
- All new files resulting from the FOIA request are available for review here: https://www.aclu.org/legal-document/federal-housing-finance-agency-foia-documents-eminent-domain-second-response?redirect=racial-justice/federal-housing-finance-agency-foia-documents-eminent-domain-second-response
John Relman, a partner at Relman, Dane & Colfax PLCC, and national legal expert on fair housing, said that it appears SIFMA and the banks have retaliated against cities that explored Local Principal Reduction as a foreclosure prevention mechanism, that illegal redlining has occurred, the banks are in violation of the Fair Housing Act, and that the illegal acts have disproportionately impacted minority homeowners.
Some key information from the FOIA request:
- Emails show that the industry had routine and close contact with FHFA officials, and their communications exhibited a friendly, almost intimate tone.
- FHFA officials followed instructions from SIFMA, a leading financial industry trade association, to intervene when San Bernardino, California, was considering the eminent domain solution. During the summer of 2012, SIFMA was particularly concerned that San Bernardino County, California, would implement an eminent domain plan.
- An hour after FHFA General Counsel Alfred Pollard received an email from SIFMA's top official Richard Dorfman updating him on San Bernardino, Pollard wrote back that he had “spoken with San Bernardino County this afternoon to gain more information about their intentions.” (July 11, 2012 email from Pollard to Dorfman.) Pollard apparently felt obligated to respond quickly to SIFMA—he separately wrote to DeMarco, his boss, that he would respond because “I am trying to get him [Dorfman] off of us.” (July 11, 2012 email from Pollard to Dorfman.) It’s also worth noting that San Bernardino officials did not perceive Pollard’s call as mere information-gathering, but understood Pollard to have been conveying the FHFA’s “thoughts and concerns” about the eminent domain program. (July 30, 2012 letter from Gregory Devereaux, San Bernardino County CEO, to Pollard.)
- FHFA officials followed instructions from SIFMA to announce that Fannie and Freddie would take aggressive action against communities using eminent domain. During the summer of 2012, Dorfman wrote Ed DeMarco, then-Acting Director of the FHFA, as well as a number of other officials, that SIFMA remained strongly opposed to the use of eminent domain for principal reduction, which, in SIFMA’s view would “portend[] ruinous consequences to a range of US financial institutions.” Accordingly, he “urge[d]” DeMarco to “engage promptly in whatever actions would be necessary to exclude from acquisition-guarantee and/or securitization” by Fannie and Freddie any loans that had been acquired through eminent domain. The statement that FHFA released in August, 2013, went even further, when it wrote that FHFA might direct Fannie and Freddie “to limit, restrict or cease business activities within the jurisdiction of any state or local authority employing eminent domain to restructure mortgage loan contracts.”
- FHFA does not appear to have performed substantial independent research in formulating its position on eminent again. Included among the research materials that it produced was a Wikipedia article on “Eminent Domain.”
- Finally, while the FHFA had extensive email, phone, and in-person contact with the financial industry over eminent domain proposals, the FHFA has produced no comparable communications reflecting concern about the impacted homeowners and communities who were exploring the eminent domain solution.
LINK TO EARLIER FOIA MATERIALS DATED JANUARY 15 2014: https://www.aclu.org/legal-document/federal-housing-finance-agency-foia-documents-eminent-domain?redirect=racial-justice/federal-housing-finance-agency-foia-documents-eminent-domain
Earlier this week was the culmination of the “Foreclose on Wells Fargo” days of action. By the time the sun set, Home Defenders, Wells Fargo workers, affordable housing activists, people fighting private prisons (which Wells invests in heavily), and our allies had carried out over two dozen actions against the bank. Additionally over 6,000 people signed a petition on the Home Defenders League website directed at CEO John Stumpf demanding that Wells end foreclosures, work to keep families in their homes, provide reasonable load modifications that include principal reduction, and stop blocking communities like Richmond, CA from enacting their own programs to combat the foreclosure crisis.
New Jersey Communities United member and foreclosure fighter Yolanda Andrews took those petitions with her to San Antonio to deliver personally to CEO Stumpf. That was part of the flagship event for the Days of Action, crashing the Wells Fargo Annual Shareholders Meeting in San Antonio, Texas bright and early the morning of Tuesday, April 29th. Actually, it was a combo of inside testimony directly to CEO Stumpf and his senior staff and an outside rally a Wells Fargo branch about three miles away from the Hyatt resort the bank had locked down for the meeting.
Participants included Roxanna Zamora from Whittier, California who is, as reported by Los Angeles Times,
“a single mother raising two teenagers, said she acquiesced to several major requests from the bank to no avail as she battled for years to obtain easier loan terms after a series of personal setbacks.
Zamora, who is fighting an aggressive cancer, said she stayed on her estranged husband's insurance policy until Wells Fargo insisted she divorce him in order to be considered for a loan modification.
She said she spent $4,500 to get a divorce decree while losing the insurance coverage. Later on, she said, she filed for bankruptcy protection at a cost of $3,500 after a bank executive told her that it was a necessary step to get her loan terms eased.
“I did all this and still they deny me," she said in a phone interview Monday from Texas. The foreclosure auction for her home is scheduled for May 20.”
Fascia Edwards of Chicago spoke inside the meeting, as reported by the San Francisco Business Journal,
“Inside the meeting, Edwards asked Stumpf to consider having a special office to handle loan modifications from disabled borrowers. She said she suffers from a herniated disc stemming from a case of workplace violence.”
Those and several other people were supported by the rally at the Wells Fargo branch, which included this video from Lauren Rodriguez, the Deputy Organizing Director for the Texas Organizing Project.
The two days of activities also featured (you can find great pictures on the HDL Facebook page here):
California Pickets and protests at two separate Wells Fargo branches in Sacramento led by Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, which included Wells as part of their Day of Action at the state Capitol. In Whittier, the same city in which Roxanna Zamora lives, theVellanoweths delivered their own Wells Fargo petition to the branch in that city.
GeorgiaOccupy Our Homes Atlanta joined forces with the Moral Monday Georgia movement to take on Wells Fargo who has carried out the most foreclosures in the state.
After a rally downtown, the group marched to a local Wells Fargo branch, where Reverend A. Motley of historic Lindsey Street Baptist Church led the group in calling on the bank to stop profiting off the backs of communities of color.
State Senator Vincent Fort, legendary civil rights activist Fred Taylor, faith leaders, and students also spoke before the group delivered thousands of petitions to the branch.
Illinois Chicago activists delivered a set of petitions to the Wells Fargo main branch in that city in support of Fascia Edwards who also traveled to San Antonio to confront John Stumpf and the senior leadership of Wells.
Massachusetts A Monday action in Springfield, MA at the home of Diane and Ray Perkins, which was scheduled to be auctioned off by Wells Fargo on Tuesday morning. Members of Springfield No One Leaves, neighbors, and community members mobilized in front of the family’s home to stop the sale, causing Wells Fargo to postpone the foreclosure until May 12! They were joined by Doris Hair, Hildegard Spielmann-Dergamini, and Raphaela Vega, three other homeowners facing imminent foreclosure by Wells Fargo. Following the rally at the Perkins’ home, the group marched to a local Wells Fargo branch and successfully delivered the petitions to the bank’s representatives.
MinnesotaNeighborhoods Organizing for Change and Minnesotans for a Fair Economy delivered your petition signatures to the regional Wells Fargo headquarters in Minneapolis.
New Jersey Home defenders joined forces with bank workers to take action in two cities. In Trenton, members of CWA Local 1037 passed out leaflets and delivered a petition asking Wells Fargo to put an end to excessive sales goals that force employees to push products on customers even when it’s not in their best interest.
In Irvington, members of New Jersey Communities United marched to two different Wells Fargo branches to stop Wells Fargo’s evil stage coach from running away with community wealth.
They were joined by Mayor Wayne Smith who spoke of Wells Fargo’s record profits, andJonelle Rodriguez - a former Wells Fargo employee who shared her experience as a bank worker trying to keep up with the pressure of meeting excessive sales goals.
Rhode IslandFighting Against Natural Gas Pipelines (FANG), joined in the fun because of Wells’ strong investments in the dirty energy sector. They pulled a version of the Wells Fargo stagecoachloaded with your petition signatures and a tray of delicious cupcakes to the Wells Fargo branch in Providence.
Around the USA Actions also took place in Inverness, FL; St. Louis, MO; Orlando, FL; Bronx, NYC; and Seattle, WA.
Some news articles about the Days of Action:
East Bay Express (Berkeley, CA): http://www.eastbayexpress.com/SevenDays/archives/2014/04/29/consumer-advocates-protest-wells-fargos-annual-shareholders-meeting-for-third-year-running
Los Angeles Times: http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-wells-fargo-protests-20140429,0,3612675.story#axzz30IPlIlCi
San Francisco Chronicle: http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Wells-Fargo-blasted-for-predatory-lending-5440048.php
San Francisco Business Journal: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/2014/04/wells-fargo-john-stumpf-protesters-annual-meeting.html.
Earlier this week, both houses of the Hawaii legislature passed legislation that will create Same-Day Voter Registration, putting the Aloha State on track to become the 13th state in the nation where voters can register and vote in the same day.
The vote was the culmination of a long, multi-year effort. Led by Hawaii Common Cause, the legislative campaign was supported by a number of organizations representing Hawaii voters, including Faith Action for Community Equity (FACE), the Center for Popular Democracy’s state partner organization in Hawaii.
“The Center for Popular Democracy congratulates the people of the Aloha State for taking the next steps toward a more inclusive, popular democracy,” said Katrina Gamble, Director of Civic Engagement and Politics at the Center for Popular Democracy.
“Hawaii’s adoption of Same Day Registration sets out a clear alternative to the voter suppression policies enacted by reactionary legislatures in states like Arizona, North Carolina, and Texas. This will serve as a boon to efforts to expand the electorate across the country,” added Gamble.
“Arcane, outdated voting rules fall most heavily on young people, low-income citizens, and people of color – those with the lowest registration rate. Same Day Registration helps level the playing field for them by offering a major new opportunity to register to vote and participate in elections,” said Steven Carbó, Director of Voting Rights and Democracy Initiatives at the Center for Popular Democracy.
Over half a million eligible citizens didn’t vote in the 2012 presidential election in Hawaii. Many were just not registered to vote. Allowing voter registration on Election Day will give citizens a second chance to meet their civic duty and vote.
SDR is a proven means of increasing voter participation. States with SDR led the nation in voter turnout by 10 percentage points in the 2012 presidential election.
CPD is also working closely with our state partner organization in Delaware, Delaware Alliance for Community Advancement, to pass SDR legislation in the First State. Stay tuned for updates.
In conjunction with our worker safety campaign, the Center for Popular Democracy (CPD) and the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH) released a paper entitled "Fatally Flawed: Why the Rockefeller Institute's Scaffold Law Report Doesn't Add Up."
The report is in response to an earlier "report" funded by a construction industry-front group, that sought to gut worker protections known as the Scaffold Safety Law.
"The Cost of Labor Law 240 on New York’s Economy and Public Infrastructure" was released last month by the Rockefeller Institute at SUNY-Albany, commissioned by the "New York Civil Justice Institute," a front-group whose address is the same as the Lawsuit Reform Alliance, which has worked for years to weaken laws that make it possible for people to assert rights against abusive or negligent landlords, employers, and other business interests. The group paid $82,000 for the report.
PULLQUOTE: "Industry front groups are putting construction profits first when they mislead the public to obscure the real stakes of this debate: workers' lives and safety on the job," said Josie Duffy, policy advocate at the Center for Popular Democracy. "The Scaffold Safety Law saves lives. Gutting it, as some are advocating, will harm workers and disproportionately put Latino and immigrant workers at risk. These groups should be ashamed of themselves for spending $82,000 on a junk report instead of making sure the workers who build our cities have the protection they need."
Read the full report, "Fatally Flawed: Why the Rockefeller Institute's Scaffold Law Report Doesn't Add Up" for evidence and details: http://populardemocracy.org/news/fatally-flawed-why-rockefeller-institute-s-scaffold-law-report-doesn-t-add
The Center for Popular Democracy and the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health are proud partners in the newly launched Scaffold Safety Coalition. The Scaffold Safety Coalition is a diverse group of workers, advocates and organizations committed to protecting construction workers in New York State, creating a unified front in the fight to defend New York’s Scaffold Safety Law from industry-backed efforts to gut the law. On behalf of more than 1.5 million New Yorkers, the coalition has pledged to push for increased enforcement of New York’s construction safety standards. More information and a full list of partners in the Scaffold Safety Coalition is available at the coalition website: www.scaffoldsafetylaw.com.
Last month, CPD, with our partner Make the Road New York, concluded a successful Affordable Care Act outreach and education campaign in Pennsylvania, with the goal of reaching out to underserved Latino, African-American, and low-income communities in Allentown, PA.
Our organizers and canvasses on the ground, worked to educate people about the ACA deadline and to identify people who will fall in the Medicaid gap, who will be hurt by the governor’s refusal to accept the Federal Medicaid expansion funding.
This work is part of a larger plan to build new organizing infrastructure in the Lehigh Valley, PA, among the growing Latino and African American communities.
MRNY and CPD have seeded the ground for a strong and permanent community base among Latinos and African-Americans in Allentown by exploring work in the Lehigh Valley over the last two years, including a 2012 Voter Registration campaign, and a grass-tops outreach survey program and immigration reform campaign in 2013.
Also in April, we participated in the Fast 4 Families bus tour campaign, calling on political leaders to enact comprehensive immigration reform.
The Fast 4 Families tour generated significant momentum for immigration reform. See the following news clips:
Activists fast for immigration reform (WFMZ-69) - article http://www.wfmz.com/news/lehigh-valley/activists-fast-for-immigration-reform_20160527100021754/19149494
Activists fast for immigration reform (WFMZ-69) - 2 min. video http://www.wfmz.com/news/activists-fast-for-immigration-reform/19149481
NBC10: http://www.criticalmention.com/ctv4/playerpage/player?text_id=4326646950×tamp=20140401215000
Learn more about Fast 4 Families here: www.fast4families.org
Two CPD core partners -- Wisconsin Jobs Now and Pittsburgh Action United – received special mentions at last month’s 1200-person Community Schools National Forum in Cincinnati.
They were lauded because they helped to lead 80- and 30-person delegations, respectively, of parents, community members, and teachers to the forum. WJN and AU were two of eight CPD partners who attended the forum as part of a CPD strategy to expand demand for community schools around the country, and create new, sustainable, dedicated funding streams for community schools.
During the last 20 years, community school initiatives have spread to localities in all 50 states. [1] They have grown rapidly, in part, because they represent a vehicle that aligns communities around a common goal—improving the success of our children. [2]
The growth is also being spurred by communities seeking significant gains in academic and nonacademic achievement, in which community schools have demonstrated success. [3][4]
At a time when a growing number of leaders are choosing to endorse programs and strategies that weaken our public schools[5], we want to organize for a future that supports and transforms our public school system.
The Community Schools National Forum gave CPD, other community organizing groups and our teachers union partners – all part of the newly formed Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools (AROS) a chance to learn from the work of existing community schools.
For example, Cincinnati Community Learning Centers hosted site visits to their exciting successful practicing community schools, like the award-winning Oyler Elementary that boasts a health center, vision and dental clinics, mental health services, early childhood programs among its many self-sustaining community partnerships.
On the other hand, the Forum afforded CPD, along with our partners and networks, the opportunity to highlight the ways in which organizing is playing an increasingly pivotal role in the trumpeting and expansion of community schools around the country.
On Thursday, at a mini-plenary on community organizing, CPD was able to present its organizing plans and predict that leading into next year’s forum we would have 20 groups boarding 20 busses from 20 cities, with newly elected pro-community school legislators announcing the introduction of community schools legislation in 20 states.
[1]Community School Research Brief, 2009, page 1; http://www.communityschools.org/assets/1/AssetManager/CCS%20Research%20R...
[2]http://www.southerneducation.org/cmspages/getfile.aspx?guid=0bc70ce1-d375-4ff6-8340-f9b3452ee088 page 2
[3]Community School Research Brief, page 1 2009; http://www.communityschools.org/assets/1/AssetManager/CCS%20Research%20R...
[4]DOE State Evaluation Reports http://www2.ed.gov/programs/21stcclc/contacts.html#state
[5] We are referring to strategies such as high stakes testing, grading schools, diverting funds to unregulated charters, mass firing of teachers and staff, and other non-child focused strategies that research studies have found do not close achievement gaps for poor and minority communities.
