Grants help parents organize groups
By Danielle Shapiro • The Herald News
Providing a good education for the poorest children in New Jersey's schools is all about engaging their parents.
The Paterson Education Fund and Paterson ACORN have received more than $200,000 to do just that. The money, a grant from 40 state and national organizations, will go toward organizing parents to convince lawmakers that three tasks are paramount: to ensure that a new school funding formula being developed is fair to students throughout the state, poor and wealthy alike; that after-school academic and social programs in the poorest school districts receive adequate funding; and that school construction is completed in the places most needed.
"Community members feel disempowered at the local school level and they certainly feel disempowered when it comes to having a say in statewide education policy," Pedro Rivas, president of Paterson ACORN, said in a statement. "We are going to work very hard to make sure not only their voices are heard, but that the ideas they offer are taken seriously and acted upon."
Communities for Public Education Reform, a coalition of education organizing groups, on Thursday announced a total of $500,000 awarded to six advocacy and organizing groups in Paterson, Jersey City and Newark. All three are Abbott school districts, a designation given to the state's 31 poorest that receive extra state financial assistance, and are also under state control. The Ford Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Prudential Foundation are among the funding organizations.
Dennis Brunn, director of the Statewide Education Organizing Committee, said the grant will help provide training for parents on federal and state issues like the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002, state Supreme Court mandates for Abbott school districts, how the New Jersey Schools Construction Corporation operates and even how to read school budgets. Being under state control makes understanding some of these rules and regulations complicated, he said.
Three groups in New Jersey will work primarily on organizing parents, including Paterson ACORN -- which received $127,700 -- while the other three, including the Paterson Education Fund, which received $89,950, will provide research, training and support for that effort.
The Paterson Education Fund is a community advocacy organization that promotes improving public education. Paterson ACORN, the local branch of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, is composed of about 2,000 Passaic County families working to promote social justice and stronger communities.
The other New Jersey recipients are the Jersey City Education Organizing Committee, One Newark Education Coalition, the Abbott Leadership Institute based at Rutgers University's Newark campus, and the Newark-based Education Law Center.
In all, the Communities for Public Education Reform awarded $2.3 million to organizations in New Jersey, Philadelphia, Chicago and Denver, said Julie Kohler, program manager and director of evaluation for Public Interest Projects, which administers and manages the grant. These are one-year grant awards, though Kohler expects that they will be renewed for at least three years. The grant amounts could change each year.