Umbrella Group Links California Advocates in Fight for Justice in Education

In an enormous and diverse state like California, which educates one out of every eight American public school students, uniting communities around a common agenda is a major challenge. The Education Justice Collaborative (EJC), however, works to do just that. A coalition of about 30 grassroots, research, and advocacy organizations, the EJC allows these groups to share resources and strategies in order to maximize their impact on the educational opportunities in their communities and across the state, and specifically to ensure that these opportunities are equally accessible to students of color, low-income students and immigrant students.

History and Members

According to a paper written by Jeannie Oakes, John Rogers, Gary Blasi, and Martin Lipton of UCLA, the impetus for the creation of the EJC was the Williams v. California case, a lawsuit that shone a bright light on the inequalities in California’s education system. The Williams parties negotiated a settlement in August 2004, which requires school inspections and established a process for students and their families to report inadequate conditions in California schools. This legal framework created an excellent opportunity and impetus for local groups to coordinate and strengthen their efforts to achieve educational justice.

Members of the Education Justice Collaborative include such well-known organizations as Californians for Justice, Public Advocates, and the ACLU of Northern California. Two UCLA programs provide the facilitating and convening functions of the collaborative: the Institute for Democracy, Education and Access (IDEA) and the Program in Public Interest Law and Policy (PILP). It is funded by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Gates Foundation. These strong connections allow the collaborative to draw on an immense wealth of organizing and research resources.

Actions

The EJC does not undertake organizing campaigns or conduct advocacy activities on its behalf, but instead provides capacity and research support for the independent efforts of its collaborators. Each of the EJC’s member organizations is “working toward a more equitable and fully resourced system of public education in California,” but each brings a different strategy and area of expertise to the table. One website that provides information on the EJC, hosted by the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA, identifies the EJC’s mission:

[To coordinate] research, policy, and capacity building to better inform and equip its members to advocate for change. Since participant organizations have different primary constituencies… the collaborative brings together various groups, building relationships among a broad and diverse set of voices and providing a larger mechanism to enhance public pressure and support for its goals.

These goals are achieved through a number of primary coordinating activities, including: conference calls; a website with information and resources; retreats and meetings; dissemination of common research; and “hands-on workshops.” All of these events grow the capacity of the participating organizations and allow them to frame individual issues in the broader context of educational justice. EJC has also geared these events towards the development of “a multiyear initiative that will build broad-based public support for policies that promote greater adequacy, quality, and equity in California public education.”

As the paper by Oakes, et al. describes,

Grassroots groups use a repertoire of social movement actions—actions that persuade with the weight of their numbers…and the garnering of sympathy and support by bearing witness.

By sharing numbers, strategies, and emphasizing shared goals, the Education Justice Collaborative allows grassroots organizers to maximize their impact on California’s educational system. As EJC looks ahead, it hopes to broaden its impact by incorporating even more groups to link and empower the state’s underserved communities in the fight for educational justice.

Prepared by Nelly Ward, April 28, 2006