Communities for Just Schools Fund

Our children stand to lose the most.

Today, September 5, we brace for news of this administration's decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. DACA is an Obama-era program that allowed qualified applicants who are undocumented and were brought to this country as children, to attend school, obtain work, and contribute to a diverse American society without fear of arrest or deportation. 

The administration's DACA decision is the latest in a string of decisions that ultimately harm the nation's interests. With the pardoning of Sheriff Joe Arpaio, executive order attacks on the Affordable Care Act, declaring war on sanctuary cities, and failure to condemn the white supremacist-driven murder and violence in Charlottesville, this administration is halting all progress toward an equitable society, a thriving society, a society of high global standing. 

Building Equity with Data, Community, & Fortitude

On July 25 at Philanthropy New York, the Communities for Just Schools Fund co-sponsored, with our friends, family, and partners at the Schott Foundation and Funders for LGBTQ Issues, a funders' briefing about what philanthropy can do to better protect lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students from unsafe, unhealthy, and oppressive environments that they too often experience in their schools. One of the presenters at the briefing was  Dr. Stephen T. Russell , who previewed his soon-to-be-released research findings that indicate not only do LGBT youth suffer from harassment and discrimination in school and disproportionate school pushout, LGBT youth of color are particularly susceptible to all of those things, in numbers greater than their population in schools.

"This Fourth [of] July is yours, not mine"

Frederick Douglass spoke these words on July 5, 1852 before an audience of white abolitionists. Douglass demanded an end to the institution of slavery and levied this charge: "for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival." Our nation has failed to live up to the values of its birth - independence, freedom, and liberty. Today, communities of color, including immigrant communities of color, face a harsh reality, fearing for their safety even in their own neighborhoods and places of worship, targeted for how they look or what documents they possess.