Original By New Reality Roundup
Fifteen years ago Ben Austin burst onto the education advocacy scene when he launched Parent Revolution. The group went on to invent and pass into law California’s landmark parent trigger law, which empowers parents to transform failing schools through community organizing. Ben eventually raised more than $20 million to bring this model to multiple states and drove a new conversation in ed reform about what kind of structural changes are needed to put parents and their kids in the driver’s seat.
Now he is back with another bold idea as the founder and CEO of Education Civil Rights Now, a national non-profit seeking to enshrine the right to a high quality education in state constitutions.
Last week this initiative won the “Power to the People” award at the annual PIE Network conference. “It’s an honor to be on a journey to unrig education for kids, especially with so many leaders in the PIE and 50CAN families,” Ben told us.
“We need to be working to adjust the underlying physics of politics so that politicians have the desire to put the needs of kids first.”
–BEN AUSTIN, ECRN FOUNDER
The genesis of Education Civil Rights Now came during the height of the pandemic. Ben explained: “The LAUSD closed our schools for longer than most major districts, my two daughters didn’t go to school for a year and a half. As a result, parents in the district sued to open all schools. When the district responded, they said the quiet part out loud in their legal briefs. They said, ‘Parents don’t have the right to a high-quality education – only a free one.’”
The big swing for ECRN over the next several months is in California, where the team is working with LA Mayor Antonio Villagrosa to qualify for a public ballot initiative, guaranteeing a right to a high-quality education in the state constitution. “That work is at a critical juncture right now,” Ben noted, “We’re about halfway towards raising the money needed for this initiative, and hope to make more progress next year.”
Make sure to follow the progress of Education Civil Rights Now and explore how to raise the bar on what students need and deserve!