E2. Front Line Community Green

November 10, 2022- “Precinct” reporter, Dianne Anderson, covers an LBUSD School Board Meeting to address racial disparities and Black student achievement. Public Advocates Local Power Building Work in the Long Beach Unified School District to address the Black Student Achievement Initiative is mentioned in the article.

Read more…

The post Precinct Reporter Group: LBUSD Parents Worry Student Scores Scraping Bottom appeared first on Public Advocates.

November 10, 2022-Stanford Social Innovation Review interviews Alliance for Housing Justice Project Director, Liz Ryan Murray, who discusses different approaches to policy change and the importance of centering the voices of people most affected by systemic barriers and inequities in housing.

Liz explains how national policy advocacy and grassroots org complement each other, “You cannot move the policy reforms without actually building the power of a tenant movement and of those who are most seriously impacted by the housing crisis.”

Read More…

The post Stanford Social Innovation Review: Driving Change in Housing Policies With Advocacy and Organizing appeared first on Public Advocates.

By Public Advocates and National Board for Professional Teaching Standards 

We are delighted that the Governor’s 2021 Budget included a robust investment in the National Board Certification Incentive Grant. National Board certification is the most respected professional certification in education1 and confers innumerable benefits on teachers, students and school communities. These benefits include:

• Fee subsidy and salary incentives for National Board Certified Teachers
• Leadership opportunities for teachers, such as mentorship of less-experienced teachers
• An invaluable professional development experience that connects professional learning with classroom practice
• An opportunity to positively impact high-needs students, including at high-priority schools, which often grapple with significant teacher shortages.2

Registering to Pursue National Board Certification

The California National Board Certification Candidate Subsidy Application offers eligible teachers $2,500 to initiate the highly-regarded National Board certification process. The application is due on January 3, 2023 at 4 pm PST. To access the application, please click here.

Candidates pursuing National Board certification must complete four components over up to three years. The process is intended to be flexible, allowing you to balance the work with your other personal and professional obligations. Details about the process, the National Board Standards and more are available here.  

The California National Board Certification Teacher Incentive Program offers National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs) a $5,000 annual stipend for each year of their five-year commitment to teach in high-priority schools (i.e., schools at which more than 55% of the students are low-income, English learners, and/or foster youth). The full list of eligible high-priority schools may be found here. The application is due on January 4, 2023 at 4 pm PST. To access the application, please click here.

For more information about these exciting opportunities, please read this flyer.

For more information about National Board certification from the California Department of Education, please click here. 

Public Advocates Inc. is a nonprofit law firm and advocacy organization that challenges the systemic causes of poverty and racial discrimination by strengthening community voices in public policy and achieving tangible legal victories advancing education, housing, transportation equity, and climate justice.

National Board for Professional Teaching Standards – The founding mission of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards is to advance the quality of teaching and learning by: maintaining high and rigorous standards for what accomplished teachers should know and be able to do; providing a national voluntary system certifying teachers who meet these standards, and advocating related education reforms to integrate National Board Certification in American education and to capitalize on the expertise of National Board Certified Teachers. Recognized as the “gold standard” in teacher certification, the National Board believes higher standards for teachers means better learning for students.

The post Calling all Teachers! Apply for a National Board Certification Grant Today and Receive State Funds! appeared first on Public Advocates.

November 3, 2022 – CalMatters reporter Alyssa Story quotes Public Advocates’ Sbeydeh Viveros-Walton in a report on a new law that bans the reduction of financial aid for college students who earn private grants to help pay for their education. The practice will end starting in the 2023-24 academic year.

“The bill has limitations. It doesn’t apply to everyone,” said Sbeydeh Viveros-Walton, director of higher education for Public Advocates, a nonprofit law firm that backed the bill. And students will still need to be informed about the issue so they can monitor their financial aid packages and ensure colleges are complying, she said. “It still puts the burden of fixing this on students.”

To read the article, published in multiple outlets, visit:

https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/college-beat-higher-education/2022/11/scholarship-displacement-california/

https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/california/universities-cant-yank-financial-aid-from-students-who-get-private-scholarships/103-78ab1e91-765f-43a4-8b7b-74dfac8f8345

https://www.cbs8.com/article/news/local/california/universities-cant-yank-financial-aid-from-students-who-get-private-scholarships/103-78ab1e91-765f-43a4-8b7b-74dfac8f8345

The post CalMatters: New law says Universities can’t yank financial aid from students who get private scholarships appeared first on Public Advocates.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 18, 2022

Contact: Sumeet Bal, sbal@publicadvocates.org, (917) 647-1952

Media Advisory

Oldest Public Interest Law Firm on West Coast Celebrates 50!

Gala event features founders, keynote Ai-jen Poo, poet activist Porsche Vue accompanied by Jazz star Marcus Shelby, and awards to community changemakers

What: Public Advocates, the oldest public interest law firm in California, will mark 5 decades of historical legal wins, community partnership and social change alongside alums, social justice activists, lawyers and policy makers in San Francisco.

The program will feature a short doc about PA’s social justice contributions and partnership, keynote speaker and president of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, Ai-jen Poo, and a spoken word performance from renowned artist and activist, Porsche Veu, who will be accompanied by famed composer, bassist, bandleader, and educator, Marcus Shelby. Public Advocates will be honoring community changemakers for outstanding commitments to social justice including: Lawyer and PA Board Member Marty Glick (Distinguished Service Award), community partner Californians for Justice (Outstanding Impact Award), bus operator and rank-and-file organizer Sultana Adams (Outstanding Community Leadership).

For the safety of our guests, all attendees will be asked to show proof of COVID vaccinations. Masks will be required indoors and guests will be given the option of viewing the program in indoor and outdoor areas.

When: Thursday, October 20, 2022. 6-8:30 pm PT

Where: The Commonwealth Club, 110 Embarcadero Drive, San Francisco

Who: Speakers (Available for interview)

• Sultana Adams, Bus Operator, rank-and-file organizer for Amalgamated Transit Union Local 192
• John Affeldt Managing Attorney Ed Team
• Marty Glick, Lawyer, PA Board Member
• Richard Marcantonio Managing Attorney
• Guillermo Mayer, CEO & President Public Advocates
• Liz Ryan Murray, Project Director, Alliance for Housing Justice
• Ai-jen Poo, President, National Domestic Workers Alliance
• Marcus Shelby Composer, Jazz Artist
• Justine Santos, Organizer, Californians for Justice (Honoree, Community Award)
• Sam Tepperman-Gelfant Managing Attorney
• Porsche Vue, The Poetic Activist
• Sbeydeh Viveros Walton, Director of Higher Education

Why: Founded by Attorneys Robert Gnaizda, J. Anthony Kline, Sid Wolinsky and Peter Sitkin, PA opened its doors on Turk street in San Francisco in September 1971 to address civil rights issues affecting the daily lives of low-income communities and we continue in working to fill that need today. Over the course of the past year, we have highlighted the important milestones and wins that have brought public advocates to this moment in our history.

publicadvocates.org/50thanniversary/stories

###

Public Advocates Inc. is a nonprofit law firm and advocacy organization that challenges the systemic causes of poverty and racial discrimination by strengthening community voices in public policy and achieving tangible legal victories advancing education, housing, transportation equity, and climate justice.

The post Media Advisory: Oldest Public Interest Law Firm on West Coast Celebrates 50! appeared first on Public Advocates.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 4, 2022

Contact: 

Yolanda Badback, White Mesa Concerned Community, (435) 459-2461, ybadback427@gmail.com 

Bradley Angel, Greenaction for Health & Environmental Justice, (415) 722-5270, bradley@greenaction.org

White Mesa Ute Organize Protest, Spiritual Walk Opposing White Mesa Uranium Mill

What: Annual rally, protest, and spiritual walk to protect the White Mesa Ute community’s health, water, air, land, culture, and sacred sites from the nearby White Mesa uranium mill and oppose the mill becoming an international dumping ground for radioactive waste from around the world. The protest and walk are sponsored by the White Mesa Concerned Community and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe. All supporters welcome.

When: Saturday, October 22, 2022, 11am MDT rally followed by spiritual and protest walk to the White Mesa uranium mill.

Where: The White Mesa Ute Community Center, located in White Mesa, Utah, just south of Blanding, Utah off of Highway 191. The community center is located on the west side of the highway. Turn in at the gas station and continue one block south to the community center.

Why: Citizens of the Ute Mountain Ute community of White Mesa and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe are concerned about contamination from the nearby uranium mill and desecration of sacred sites and cultural resources.

Quotes:

“They are bringing toxic waste, radioactive waste, from places all across the United States to the mill in White Mesa. In the past, some has spilled. I can smell the mill from my house when it’s running. We are the closest community. If there’s a spill, or an accident, it’s our children who ride the school bus on these roads with the trucks every morning. That’s why we’re standing up and saying: Enough. We want to keep our home and our children safe.” –Yolanda Badback, White Mesa Concerned Community

“Here on our reservation in White Mesa, I’m worried about the mill. We are just a small community of about 300 people. Saturday is a day I will spend with my family, my kids and grandkids. Please come walk with us and support clean air and clean water for our children and our grandchildren here in our Ute Mountain Ute community.” – Thelma Whiskers, White Mesa Concerned Community

###

White Mesa Concerned Community is a grassroots group of concerned citizens of the Ute Mountain Ute community of White Mesa, Utah, located south of the White Mesa uranium mill. We work to inform our fellow citizens and protect our community, health, water, air, land, culture, and sacred sites from toxic contamination.

The 2022 Rally and Spiritual Walk is co-sponsored by the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice, Uranium Watch, Indigenous Environmental Network, Grand Canyon Trust, Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, Living Rivers, HEAL Utah, SLC Air Protectors, Utah Chapter of the Sierra Club, Great Old Broads for Wilderness, National Parks Conservation Association, PANDOS.

Click here to download this Media Advisory

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Friday, September 30, 2022

CONTACT:

Alessandra de la Torre, 541-841-6196, Alessandra@RogueClimate.org

Community-Wide Efforts Result in Discount Program to Reduce Energy Bills for Low-Income Households

[MEDFORD, OR] — Low-income families in Oregon can soon enroll in a program that will significantly reduce their energy bills. As a result of statewide community organizing efforts led by environmental justice organizations to pass the Energy Affordability Act (HB 2475) in 2021, Pacific Power’s low-income discount program will be launched on Saturday, October 1, 2022. Households who enroll in this program could receive as much as a 40% discount on their monthly utility bills.

With the passage of the Energy Affordability Act in Oregon’s 2021 legislative session, the Oregon Public Utility Commission (PUC) has granted authority for investor-owned energy utility companies to provide more flexible rate options to reduce energy burden for low-income customers.

“Our communities worked hard in 2021 to win this critical bill, which will have a big impact on families that experience the most financial hardships,” said Alessandra de la Torre, Rogue Climate’s Advocacy & Programs Director. “As we experience more extreme heat and smoke due to climate change, it’s important that the most vulnerable communities have affordable, reliable energy sources that will keep them safe, healthy, and comfortable in their homes. While there is still more work to do to secure household energy saving options like weatherization, reducing the cost of energy bills will provide some relief for families who have had to make sacrifices due to the high cost of utilities.”

Energy burden, which is the share of someone’s income that goes toward energy bills, has increased as people use more energy, inflation rises and sources of income dry up. According to a 2020 study by Oregon Housing and Community Services (OHCS), energy burden disproportionately impacts rural communities, low-income communities, and communities of color. In 2020, OHCS reported that more than 17,000 households in Jackson County and over 6,000 households in Coos County were experiencing energy burden. 

 Customers who wish to enroll in this program can do so by contacting their utility provider for information on how to apply. Households should also watch for mailers, phone calls, and website updates from their energy utility about their discount programs. Pacific Power customers who are registered in the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) or the Oregon Energy Assistance Program (OEAP) will be automatically enrolled in the program.

###

Read San Francisco Bay View Newspaper story:

“Board of Supervisors supporting Community demands for full cleanup of Shipyard”

September 30, 2022

Read San Francisco Examiner story:

“Hunters Point Shipyard Toxic Bowl of Soup Cleanup May Finally Be in Sight”

Spend your summer building community power and advancing racial & economic justice at one of California’s leading civil rights law firms!

Public Advocates Inc. and the Charles Houston Bar Association (CHBA) are proud to announce the seventh annual Arc of Justice Summer Fellowship opportunity for law students committed to pursuing careers in public interest law. The Arc of Justice Summer Fellowship is a collaboration between Public Advocates and CHBA to improve the representation of attorneys of color in the public interest profession and to increase advocacy with communities of color throughout the Bay Area, particularly Black communities. The Arc of Justice Fellows will spend the summer clerking at Public Advocates with dedicated support from CHBA.

The Fellows will leverage Public Advocates’ and CHBA’s networks and professional development resources and will be exposed to public interest practitioners representing a wide variety of legal fields. In addition, the Fellows will establish meaningful connections with other summer law clerks and attorneys at other public interest legal organizations, minority bar associations, government agencies and private law firms or corporations.

Since 2016, Public Advocates and CHBA have selected Arc of Justice Summer Fellows from law schools throughout the country to clerk on our Education Equity and Metropolitan Equity Teams. The Fellows have engaged in local, regional, and state policy work on behalf of students, transit riders, and residents of color. They have also been warmly welcomed into the CHBA network, building meaningful relationships with high-caliber Bay Area attorneys through networking and social events.

The ten week-long Arc of Justice Summer Fellowship comes with a $3,000 stipend, in addition to a Public Advocates’ $3,000 living allowance (both are subject to taxes). To promote diversity in public interest law, the allowance can be used to supplement any additional outside funding law clerks may receive. 

Fellowship Partners

Public Advocates, a non-profit law firm and advocacy organization, challenges the systemic causes of poverty and discrimination by strengthening community voices in public policy and achieving tangible legal victories advancing education, housing and transit equity, and climate justice. Since 1971, Public Advocates has focused on “making rights real” across California by collaborating with grassroots groups representing people of color, immigrants, and low-income individuals to achieve strategic policy reform, enforce civil rights, and support movement-building.

CHBA is a nonprofit organization of lawyers, judges, and law students throughout Northern California, and operates as an affiliate member of the National Bar Association and the California Association of Black Lawyers. Since 1955 CHBA has been committed to working within the African American community to facilitate access to the justice system and to promote equal protection under the law.

Spend Your Summer at Public Advocates

Our Legal Clerkship Program exposes students to the diverse strategies of our impact work in an environment designed to help them develop as public interest attorneys. Each law clerk is assigned to a supervising attorney on one of our two teams (Education Equity and Metropolitan Equity) who has primary responsibility for giving constructive feedback in a positive learning environment.

• Education Equity Team: Law clerks on the Education Equity Team support attorneys in K-12 and Higher Education advocacy school funding equity cases and campaigns in partnership with community-based organizations. Examples of cases and campaigns include legal advocacy to defund school police, enforcement actions to hold districts accountable for transparent and equitable budgeting, and enforcement actions to hold community colleges accountable for remedial education reform.
• Metropolitan Equity Team: Law clerks on the Metropolitan Equity Team support attorneys and community groups to win investment and development that meets the needs of the region’s low-income residents and workers. Public Advocates, along with our community, regional, and statewide partners, works to secure more affordable housing near jobs and transit, robust and affordable local transit service, investment without displacement, healthy and safe communities, access to quality jobs, and greater power for low-income communities of color in local and regional decision-making. Examples of our work include campaigns and coalition work that aim to create more homes that families can afford, more protections for tenants facing rising rents, and better wages and stronger workforce development policies for local residents.

Law clerk duties may include legal research and writing, drafting policy memos and reports, client communication and leadership development, community training and resource development, coalition-building, and data analysis. In addition to providing substantive legal advocacy experience, the Legal Clerkship Program includes a number of brown bag sessions, visits to legislative and state agency meetings in Sacramento, team-building events, meetings with community partners, and other activities intended to complement the day-to-day work of our law clerks.

Qualifications

Public Advocates and CHBA are seeking a law student with a demonstrated commitment to:

• Promoting diversity in the legal field, such as through membership in a relevant bar association or law school affinity group;
• Pursuing a career in public interest law and/or policy; and/or
• Serving low-income communities, communities of color and/or immigrant communities — and the Black community, in particular.

Public Advocates currently has a hybrid schedule and we expect all of our clerks, except for the clerk to be based in Southern California, to be able to commit to working at least part time for 10 weeks in Public Advocates’ San Francisco or Sacramento office, with the acknowledgement that this could change if COVID-19 levels increase.

How to Apply

Applicants should provide a cover letter explaining:

• Your specific interests and qualifications (please do not simply recap your résumé);
• Your experiences and commitment to working with low-income communities, communities of color and immigrant communities, especially Black communities;
• Your reasons for applying to Public Advocates; and
• Your preference (if any) for placement with our Education Equity or Metropolitan Equity Teams.

In addition, include a résumé, writing sample and list of references. Please email your materials to: Public Advocates’ Legal Clerkship Program, at lawclerks@publicadvocates.org, and Nichelle Holmes, CHBA Immediate Past President, at pastpresident@charleshoustonbar.org. Please include “Arc of Justice Fellowship Application” in your subject line.

We are currently accepting applications and plan to finalize our class by the end of February, 2023. The summer program begins the Tuesday after Memorial Day. If you are applying for the Arc of Justice Summer Fellowship, please do not submit a separate summer clerkship application.

Diversity Commitment

Public Advocates is committed to fostering a diverse staff and diversity in the legal profession. We encourage all interested individuals to apply — especially Black, Indigenous and People of Color; women; people from low-income backgrounds; people with disabilities; people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender; and anyone belonging to any other federal or state protected category. Read our Diversity Vision Statement here.

The post 2023 Arc of Justice Summer Fellowship appeared first on Public Advocates.

Spend your summer building community power and advancing racial & economic justice at one of California’s leading civil rights law firms!

Public Advocates Inc. is currently hiring summer 2023 law clerks for our San Francisco and Sacramento offices. Our law clerks play a crucial role in building power in low-income communities of color through our community partnership lawyering model and advancing racial and economic justice through policy advocacy, enforcement actions and capacity-building. In turn, we are committed to providing high quality training and supervision to help advance the career goals of our clerks and to foster a true community of public interest lawyers.

Our Mission

Public Advocates, a non-profit law firm and advocacy organization, challenges the systemic causes of poverty and discrimination by strengthening community voices in public policy and achieving tangible legal victories advancing education, housing and transit equity, and climate justice. Since 1971, Public Advocates has focused on “making rights real” across California by collaborating with grassroots groups representing people of color, immigrants and low-income individuals to achieve strategic policy reform, enforce civil rights, and support movement-building.

Legal Clerkship Program

Our Legal Clerkship Program exposes students to the diverse strategies of our impact work in an environment designed to help them develop as public interest attorneys. Each law clerk is assigned to a supervising attorney on one of our two teams (Education Equity and Metropolitan Equity) who has primary responsibility for giving constructive feedback in a positive learning environment.

• Education Equity Team: Law clerks on the Education Equity Team support attorneys in K-12 and Higher Education advocacy in partnership with community-based organizations. Examples of cases and campaigns include legal advocacy to defund school police, enforcement actions to hold districts accountable for transparent and equitable budgeting, and enforcement actions to hold community colleges accountable for remedial education reform. 
• Metropolitan Equity Team: Law clerks on the Metropolitan Equity Team support attorneys and community groups to win investment and development that meets the needs of the region’s low-income residents and workers. Public Advocates, along with our community, regional, and statewide partners, works to secure more affordable housing near jobs and transit, robust and affordable local transit service, investment without displacement, healthy and safe communities, access to quality jobs, and greater power for low-income communities of color in local and regional decision-making. Examples of our work include campaigns and coalition work that aim to create more homes that families can afford, more protections for tenants facing rising rents, and better wages and stronger workforce development policies for local residents.

Law clerk duties may include legal research and writing, drafting policy memos and reports, client communication and leadership development, community training and resource development, coalition-building, and data analysis. In addition to providing substantive legal advocacy experience, the Legal Clerkship Program includes a number of brown bag sessions, visits to legislative and state agency meetings in Sacramento, team-building events, meetings with community partners, and other activities intended to complement the day-to-day work of our law clerks.

Public Advocates currently has a hybrid schedule and we expect all of our clerks, except for the clerk to be based in Southern California, to be able to commit to working at least part time for 10 weeks in Public Advocates’ San Francisco or Sacramento office, with the acknowledgement that this could change if COVID-19 levels increase.

Living Allowance

Public Advocates provides a $3,000 living allowance (subject to taxes) to each summer clerk who commits to and completes a 10-week internship. The allowance can be used to supplement any additional outside funding law clerks may receive.

How to Apply

We value applicants with a demonstrated commitment to public interest work. Summer clerks commit to working full-time (on-site, if applicable) for 10 weeks (Monday through Friday, 7.5 hours/day). Applicants should provide a cover letter explaining:

• Your specific interests and qualifications (please do not simply recap your résumé);
• Your experiences and commitment to working with low-income communities, communities of color, and immigrant communities;
• Your reasons for applying to Public Advocates;
• Your preference (if any) for placement with our Education Equity or Metropolitan Equity Teams; and
• Your preference (if any) for placement in San Francisco, Sacramento, or Los Angeles.

In addition, include a résumé, writing sample and list of references. Send your materials to our Legal Clerkship Program at lawclerks@publicadvocates.org.

We are currently accepting applications and plan to finalize our class by the end of February, 2023. The summer program begins the Tuesday after Memorial Day.

Arc of Justice Summer Fellowship

Public Advocates and the Charles Houston Bar Association (CHBA) are proud to announce the seventh annual Arc of Justice Summer Fellowship opportunity for law students committed to advancing the legal and policy priorities of low-income African American communities in the Bay Area. The Arc of Justice Fellowship is a collaboration between Public Advocates and CHBA to help increase the number of law students of color who pursue careers in public interest law. The Arc of Justice Fellow will receive an additional summer stipend of $3,000. Find out more here.

Diversity Commitment

Public Advocates is committed to fostering a diverse staff and diversity in the legal profession. We encourage all interested individuals to apply — especially Black, Indigenous and People of Color; women; people from low-income backgrounds; people with disabilities; people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender; and anyone belonging to any other federal or state protected category. Read our Diversity Vision Statement here.

The post 2023 Summer Legal Clerkship appeared first on Public Advocates.

Thursday September 29th 2022!

SPEAK OUT TO DEMAND A TOTAL CLEANUP OF ALL RADIOACTIVE AND TOXIC WASTE AT THE HUNTERS POINT SHIPYARD SUPERFUND SITE!

The Center for Equity for English Learners (CEEL) at Loyola Marymount University and Californians Together, two of Public Advocates’ partners on the LCFF Equity Coalition, released a report today entitled “In Search of Equity for English Learners: A Review of the 2021-2024 Local Control and Accountability Plans.” A panel of 46 reviewers, including Public Advocates, representing California educators, researchers and advocates convened in October 2021 to analyze the LCAPs from 26 districts with high numbers (greater than 999) or high percentages (greater than 40%) of English learners. Our goal was to assess the degree to which these districts considered the needs of diverse English learners in their LCAPs.

As reviewers, we hoped that our analysis of these 26 school districts’ LCAPs would reveal a renewed focus on English learners as a group of students that has historically been underserved. Unfortunately, the findings showed that school districts have come up short in their support for the needs of English learners, failing to consistently (1) differentiate programs, actions and services for different English learner populations, such as newcomer students; (2) provide robust professional development for educators; and (3) center family engagement in a way that empowered families to lead and monitor LCAP development and implementation.

The report details its findings and offers a series of recommendations for the State, County Offices of Education and Local Education Agencies to sharpen their focus on equity and opportunity for English learners to meet their academic and language needs.

• Read the press release: A Needle In A Haystack: The Ongoing Search for Equity for English Learners Through an Analysis of District Local Control and Accountability Plans (LCAPs).
• Read the full report: In Search of Equity for English Learners: A Review of the 2021-2024 Local Control and Accountability Plans

Read the report: In Search of Equity for English Learners: A Review of the 2021-2024 Local Control and Accountability Plans

Public Advocates offers our thanks to CEEL and Californians Together for the opportunity to participate in the review of district LCAPs and our appreciation for this important report and call to action.

Please stay tuned for Public Advocates’ Multilingual Learner Resource Guide, which will be published this Fall. This guide describes the rights of multilingual learners, or English learners, and their families to safe and academically and linguistically rich learning environments; highlights school districts’ responsibilities toward multilingual learners; and offers practical tips for families, educators, organizers and advocates to protect and uplift them so they can thrive in school and beyond.

The post In Search of Equity for English Learners appeared first on Public Advocates.

This past spring I was part of a two person delegation of GGJ members to the first ever International English Language Course on Political Training for Political Educators outside of Sao Paolo, Brazil. The 6-week course was coordinated by the Landless Workers Movement (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra [the MST]) at their national school for political education, Escola Nacional Florestan Fernandes (ENFF). I came as a representative of the Vermont Workers’ Center, and was among 60 participants from 47 organizations and 17 countries. Most organizations were members of La Via Campesina, an international organization primarily dedicated to the issues of peasant movements around the world and food sovereignty (GGJ is a member).  Organizations ranges from small farmer movements in Zimbabwe to organizations that work with adavasi (indigenous) movements in India to South African trade unionists to members of the Kurdish liberation struggle to a leftwing Mexican youth organization.

ENFF is the flagship school of the MST. Since their founding 31 years ago, the MST has been committed to political education (or formação in Portuguese). They have schools dedicated to political education in all 23 Brazilian states where they have a presence. ENFF was built 11 years with the volunteer labor of over 1,000 MST members and many other supporters of the movement. It is a gorgeous campus, populated with vibrant flowers, inspiring revolutionary murals made by each class that had passed through there, beautiful architecture, small plots of food productions, and a design that emphasized communal space (a small plaza in the middle of a cluster of dormitories, with benches and a gazebo; the courtyard where we held our daily misticas; the open verandas where we had cultural nights, celebrations, etc., on both stories of the building that held the kitchen, cafeteria, and a small store with MST products). There was also an incredible library that held thousands of books on various subjects, from the history of revolutionary struggles around the world to social theory to agroecology (mostly in Portuguese and Spanish). The MST leaders at the school described ENFF as the “patrimony of the international working class.”

The school was coordinated and “staffed” by a brigade of 40 MST members who took 4 month shifts to help run the logistics and programming of the school. Like all groupings in the MST, they had a name and slogan: “Apolônio de Carvalho,” named after an important Brazilian socialist. To facilitate the functioning of the school, all students were expected to do “militant work,” volunteer labor to support the day-to-day needs of the school community. I was on the coffee team that set up and cleaned up for the multiple coffee breaks through the “school day.” Other militant work ranged from the production team that helped produce and harvest the food grown on campus; a childcare team; a cultural team that helped plan the “cultural nights,” helped with the programming for the campus radio station; collective laundry; cleaning up after meals. Militant work is a central part of the pedagogy of the MST, partly around wanting to put intellectual labor alongside other forms of labor and also as part of creating new social relations, where labor is about meeting collective needs and is not performed because of coercion.

We had classes 6 days per week. Every day began with a 10-20 minute long “mistica,” planned by each of us in our small groups (“nucleos do base” [NB’s]) and by other NB. Mistica both describes a particular activity and a broader concept. The activity is usually a short “performance” that tells a particular story about a particular struggle, while projecting a vision of the future. I put “performance” in quotes because the MST is emphatic that it is not “theater,” but rather an expression of reality as we experience it. Mistica incorporates symbols, music, art, movement, “acting,” participation by “spectators.” One of the misticas my NB planned conveyed the intersection of patriarchy, dispossession, and capitalism. One of the ones that Daryl (the other GGJ representative) and his group prepared conveyed the patterns of state violence around the world and their link to imperialism.

Many MST movement elders attribute mistica as the primary reason they’re still in the movement. It’s spiritual and intellectual sustenance, and stretches minds and hearts in preparation for the activity of the day, Mistica also described the overall “spirit” or “expression” of a group of people, the outward expression of collective revolutionary spirit.

An MST member riding with me and another classmate to the airport at the end of the program commented that our class seemed to have a very beautiful mistica. There were songs that were our songs (some people brought from their movements, others that were brand new and composed spontaneously); chants that were ours; countless manifestations of a profound camaraderie formed through intense, emotional learning together, sharing and hearing each other’s stories, working together, traveling together during the intensive “field week,” celebrating together during various cultural nights and late night festivities.

The coursework itself was incredible. The MST sees left theory as a living body of theory, and draws heavily from the Marxist Leninist tradition. Some of the more interesting courses were on the history and development of imperialism, the reproduction of capital in agriculture, a great session on gender, political organization, and popular education. There was quite a lot of healthy debate on organizational form, the role of the state, the legacy of colonialism and the persistence of racism, the dynamics between the old hegemonic imperial nations and the newly industrializing “BRICS” countries that increasingly play out imperial relations on a more regional level.

I learned an incredible amount about social movements in Brazil and around the world. From the MST, we learned about their incredible dynamic relationship between organizational form, strategy, and tactics. Their process of land takeovers entailed setting up an incredibly cooperative mini-society of several hundred families, a “movement baptism” that created the conditions for embodying radical new forms of human relations. The MST doesn’t actually legally exist in Brazil, and many of the movements represented there were very suspicious of the growth of World Bank and foundation-funded Non-Governmental Organizations and Non Profit Organization (seeing with incredibly clarity the ways in which they coopt movements and movement leaders).

One of the profound lessons for me was on the meaning of true internationalism and solidarity. The MST is in a very challenging moment in Brazil’s political and economic history: the ruling Workers Party has betrayed many of its original principles to the whims of international finance capital; the right wing is mobilizing larger crowds than have been seen in decades. Yet, instead of turning inwards, they continue to launch programs like this training, have helped started countless other movements around the Brazil, and remain committed to the development of an international revolutionary social force. In fact, I believe that’s exactly what see as necessary in this context, rather than turning inwards.

It’s hard to some up any one main takeaway from that 6 weeks. I’m incredibly inspired to be personally connected 60 people fighting in inspiration liberation struggles around the world. I’m inspired by the deep and broad commitment to political education and leadership development. I’m deeply moved by the way in which the MST both fights for total social transformation while building the new social right now. And I’m so impressed with the many examples of the ways in which strategy flows from a profound and sharp assessment of the objective and subjective conditions during this phase of advanced capitalism.