In the never-ending right-wing-led campaigns against social progress, public schools are frequently targeted. And there’s a reason: while battered and underfunded, these institutions are still symbolic of the actualization that we are more than just individual agents or even the sum of our parts; that differences needn’t divide; that a fairer, kinder future for all of us, starting with our kids, is always worth committing to, investing in and being collectively responsible for.
Compassion. Collaboration. Respect. Empathy. Responsibility. To some, these principles are, apparently, terrifying.
And that fear is the tide that public education advocates and progressives continue to hold off, while fighting for a more just and a fairer world for all of us. Even for those who actively undermine the idea that we can do better for each other.
As I write, 2023 is winding down. But the work continues. All my thanks to the authors who gave so much of their time, expertise, and passion for public education in this issue of Our Schools / Our Selves.
About the author
Erika (she/her) became Director of the National Office in 2020, but began her career at the CCPA in 1997 as director of the Education Project. Originally established to monitor corporate intrusion in public education, the project broadened its focus to include standardized testing, social justice and anti-racism education in schools, educational equity, school finance, child care and early childhood education, tuition and user fees, technology, surveillance and privacy, the arts, and community-based education. In 2000 she also became editor of Our Schools/ Our Selves, the popular education journal founded in 1988. It provides commentary and analysis on a wide variety of education-related topics. Erika has a BA in History from McGill University and an MA in English (critical literary analysis) from the University of Guelph. Prior to coming to the CCPA, she worked in Washington DC researching the corporatization of childhood, and was one of the founders of UNPLUG (which became the now-defunct Center for Commercial-Free Public Education). She spends far too much time on social media.
