Our New Yearbook is is here, better than ever! 2012 was a remarkable
year for CFJ, a year of growth and new directions. In the summer, we
graduated our largest youth leadership class ever!
We expanded our work
on community college issues at the statewide level with not one, but two
emerging networks--the Community College Student and Community College
Equity
Networks. In collaboration with our allies we led efforts to pass
several bills in Sacramento to tackle the school-to-prison pipeline, and
the voices of our studets played a critical role in shaping the debate
about a new equitable school funding formula. Click here to download your copy of our yearbook and read about our local policy wins!
This has been an incredible year for us. We graduated our largest Summer Youth Leadership Academy class ever. This December we will be celebrating our Sixteenth Anniversary "Building New Beginnings" with live performances, good food, and poweful youth speakers.
It’s hot out there. But what our student leaders have been doing this summer for educational justice is even hotter.
Our Summer Youth Leadership Academy (SYLA) was a tremendous success. Last week, we graduated our largest class ever with an impressive 100% completion rate.
Check out some photos below from our leadership classes in Oakland, San Jose, Fresno, and Long Beach.
The
Summer Youth Leadership Academy is an intensive seven-week organizing
boot camp across our four regions: Long Beach, Fresno, San Jose and
Oakland. Starting at the end of June and culminating in mid-August, SYLA
runs three times a week to train and empower student leaders across the
state with the tools to win real changes in their schools and education
policies statewide.
Here are some highlights on how students used their skills to demand change:
Oakland- Youth
leaders organized the "Hella Queer Y.O.C: It's the Love Lockdown: Shutting Down Homophobia and the
Gender Binary” community event with over 100 people. The event explored
how homophobia and the gender binary are reinforced and oppress youth.
Youth added their own flavor through guerrilla theater, spoken word, and
music performances.
San Jose- Youth
leaders staged an “Eat-In” to welcome the new East Side Union High
School District Superintendent and make know their demands that
A-through-G curriculum must be successfully implemented in all high
schools. More than 100 students, parents, and community organizations
came out to support the CFJ student leaders.
Fresno- In
110 degree weather youth leaders organized the “2012: The World is not
ending, CFJ IS TAKING OVER…Exclusive” featuring community poetry, an
interactive social justice cake walk, and student testimonials around
the school to prison pipeline.
Long Beach- Youth
leaders hosted the “Ultimate Food Championship (UFC)” match of the
century between “Eazy the Carrot” and “Greasy the Hot Dog”, in what
proved to be a battle of two titans fighting to reign supreme in the
school cafeteria. Fortunately, Eazy the Carrot came out on top and now a
crusade has been launched to change school food to provide healthier
and more vegan and vegetarian options in the Long Beach Unified School
District.
Thanks
to the hundreds of students, parents, and community members who came
out to support the end-of-SYLA events and make this year’s Summer
Academy a resounding success!
p.s.
Click here to watch some cool student made videos
NEWS
"Our Future Can't Wait" Day of Action
On May 10, 2012 Californians for Justice, who spearheads the Campaign for Quality Educationtraveled to Sacramento with more than 200 students, parents, and equity in public schools advocates. As mothers and daughters, sons and fathers, students and workers we rallied in Sacramento to urge the state legislature to work with the Governor to pass a fair weighted student formula that gives every student a fair shot at a good education and that holds districts accountable for targeting the weighted funds to low-income and English Learner students.
The Sacramento Day of Action featured legislative visits with key legislators across the state and the "Our Future Can't Wait" rally at the State Capitol Park. From spoken word performances to unity chants, the march around the Capitol exposed youth to the educational justice movement swelling across the State.
NEWS
Tax the 1%-Educate the 99% Petition
Over the past three years, California has cut over 2 million dollars per day from our schools! Take action now to protect our schools and the future of California.
Star Wars towel, posing as a superhero cape: $10.
Two masks from the Dollar Tree store: $2.
Making a video with young leaders who will change the way California funds education: Priceless.
The critics are calling it "hot" "challenging the status quo" "fresh" and "breaking new ground."
I'm not talking about this year's Grammy-winning Song of the Year . I'm talking about our new CFJ Winter 2012 NEWSFLASH!
We have reached a milestone. Yes, We are coming of age! We have come a long way since our beginnings fifteen years ago in local precincts, college campuses, high school classrooms, and community forums where people came together to build grassroots power to fight draconian propositions like Prop 187 and Prop 209 in California.
Today we continue to build people power across the state through a solid organizing model and student-led campaigns.
PRESS ROOM
2011 Sacramento May Day of Action: Education 2.0 Press Conference
On May 10, 2011 students and parents unveiled the new “OS 2011” in Sacramento, CA to urge our State lawmakers to “Upgrade Our Education System” to meet 21st century realities and demands.
Californians for Justice spearheads the Campaign for Quality Education (CQE), which on May 10 brought together more than 125 parents and students from across California for a Day of Action in Sacramento.
We met with key legilators and deliver a simple message: The economic future of California depends on the brainpower of the rising generation.
Check out our youth speaking truth to power!
NEWS
The new CFJ Newsletter is hot off the press!
Amazing things are happening at CFJ. We have won several key victories in our educational justice campaigns in Long Beach, Fresno, San Jose, and Oakland. In May, we stormed the Capitol in Sacramento. Now we are kicking off our Summer Youth Leadership Academy, a seven week three times a week intensive boot-camp for high school students on the trade of organizing and winning campaigns. To find out more please download our CFJ Newsflash!
GRASSROOTS COALITION SUES CALIFORNIA OVER SCHOOL FUNDING
Says State Violating Fundamental Right to Education by Shortchanging Students
(July 12, 2010)
Oakland—A coalition of grassroots groups and individuals representing thousands of low-income students and parents from across California is suing the State of California over a school funding system that the Governor’s own Committee on Education Excellence said is “not equitable;…not efficient; and…not sufficient for students who face the greatest challenges.”
The lawsuit calls on the State to live up to its constitutional responsibility and “provide all California public school students with a new school finance system that sufficiently and equitably supports its public schools, so that every child has a reasonable opportunity to obtain a meaningful education that prepares them for civic, social, and economic success in the 21st century.”
Plaintiffs in the case include the Campaign for Quality Education (CQE), Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), Californians for Justice (CFJ) and San Francisco Organizing Project (SFOP), plus more than 20 individual students and parents. They are represented by Public Advocates Inc., a San Francisco-based public interest law firm and advocacy group that also served as a lead counsel in Williams v. California and Serrano v. Priest, as well as Howard Rice, and Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP, two prominent national law firms serving as pro bono counsel.
To read the entire press release or learn more about the historic CQE et al v. California lawsuit, go to www.fairschoolsnow.org
Californians for Justice started in 1995 to build power in communities of color across California. Find out what we stand for, what we do, and who we are.
Click on the icon below to find us on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
Public Education is a crucial arena to fight for racial equality in California. Over six million students attend public schools in the state. An entire generation of young people are suffering from inadequate education and racist policies in schools.
CFJ members look for solutions to these problems and develop campaigns to win concrete improvements to our schools.
Exposing problems is not enough. We are developing solutions and building power in our communities to fight for racial justice and quality education for all students. Find out more about our campaigns in San Diego, Long Beach, San Jose, Fresno, and Oakland. We have also taken the lead in bringing together a strong alliance of organizations across the state to lead a coordinated campaign to ensure that all students receive a quality education.
Find out what we stand for, what we do, and who we are.
students attend public schools in the state. An entire generation of young people are suffering from inadequate education and racist policies in schools.
