Teachers, parents, and students in more than 200 cities staged “walk-ins” on Thursday to demand increased funding for public schools, expansion of community schools with added services, to call for an end to harsh discipline in schools that often has a disparate racial impact, and—especially in Massachusetts—to protest plans to expand charter schools at the expense of public schools.
“The [Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools] walk-ins are about the need to invest in our students — particularly Black and Brown students,” said Keron Blair, director of AROS, in a statement sent to ThinkProgress. “We want the next president to close the Wall St. billionaire tax loopholes that rob our public schools of the money they need to provide our children with the education they deserve. Many schools in Black and Brown communities across the country are called failing. But it is the students, parents and educators that have been failed.”
Tim Kaine joined a walk-in in Pennsylvania, promising that “We’re going to have teachers around the table to make sure we have policies that work.”
In Chicago, the walk-ins served not only as a way to call for more funding but also as a way to rally support for teachers, who plan to strike next week if their union does not reach a contract deal with the school system. In Massachusetts, it was an opportunity to speak out against Question 2, a ballot measure that, if approved, would allow state officials to approve up to 12 new charter schools per year.
In Milwaukee, teachers wore Black Lives Matter T-shirts to their walk-in.
In Chicago:
"We're really fighting for equitable funding, so that our students get the programing they deserve. So that we don't have to have cuts to teacher positions, so that they can have art and they can have sports," said Ramona Richards, a teacher at Gunsaulus Scholastic Academy.
In West Virginia:
“To have a free public education available to them with teachers who are invested in their success and you can see them as a whole person, not just a test score, I think that’s important for success,” [eighth grade science teacher Kristy] Peters said.