Schools By Us For Us

Over the next 3 months, we are embarking on a youth-led campaign,  “Schools By Us For Us” , to organize a city-wide network of student leaders who want to win student voting rights, and restore community control of schools.

 This includes youth led and organized:

• Workshops to train youth leaders to join school boards, and advocate for student voting rights

• Media outreach to inform the public about the opportunities of community control.

• Advocacy trips to Albany to tell our state legislators not to renew mayoral control for another four years

By law, students should be included in decision-making efforts at nearly every level, including serving on School Leadership Teams (SLTs), district-wide Community Education Councils (CECs), and the citywide Panel for Educational Policy (PEP). Currently, students serving on these decision-making bodies do not have voting power. It is also unclear as to how students and their communities can even apply to serve on these bodies.