Collective Power
Youth don’t have the power to make decisions about things that affect us and that’s wrong. It’s our education, we should have a say in how it’s run, how it’s working, and decisions that get made. Our schools don’t have opportunities for us to be involved in making real decisions about how our schools are run. That needs to change! We need COLLECTIVE POWER amongst us to be able to make these things happen! We cannot win or make big shifts alone.
Issues happening now
What this looks like in our schools:
Students have no real say in their education, no opportunities to make decisions about our education
Solutions & recommendations:
Create real opportunities for students to make decisions about our education, which would teach leadership and so many important skills.
Important Announcement! This is hard work. Students need to be compensated- via stipends, wages, or scholarships- OR these opportunities need to be built into the school day and should be for-credit. We can’t ask students who are already over-worked and stressed to just do more without getting anything in return.
Create opportunities for students to learn how to read and understand the school budget, and then make decisions about where resources should be focused
These opportunities could be built into the school day via courses. Why couldn’t there be an “Equity in our School” course in which students get to analyze school data and design improvements?
Create opportunities for students to train admin, teachers, and staff; in case you couldn’t tell already, students have A LOT to say about what they need from their teachers, admin, and school environment. Create opportunities for students to lead adults, you won’t regret it!
Create student seats on all the hiring committees- students should participate in the hiring of all teachers, admin, and staff
A final note about Collective Power–
our organization is built on the theory that systems don’t change without pressure from the outside. Our role and our purpose is to be that pressure. You might not always like us, you might not always agree with our tactics, we will likely make you uncomfortable at some point. But we’re pretty sure that nothing is going to change if we don’t stand up and fight.
On that note, we’ll leave you with this quote from Frederick Douglass: