Sometimes we find ourselves in conversation with neighbors, friends, or relatives who question why we support local, publicly supported schools. While we’re not experts in communications, here are some approaches we’ve found to provoke thought rather than instant opposition.

Project 2025 stems from a narrow and exclusionary vision of a country that does not exist, and thus a policy that, through force and division, attempts to create it. In a pluralistic society, ALL families are welcome in our schools: all faith traditions, all races, all ethnicities, all abilities, and all identities of every kind. Our schools do not choose which kids are more welcome than others; they welcome them all, and they strive to provide equal opportunity to them all.

We hope this finds you refreshed and ready for this school year. In the event you took the summer off (as we did 😊), we prepared a summary of some CB educational issues below. For those who stayed connected this summer, thank you for your continued dedication!

But first, we want to wish everyone a great start to this new school year. One of the most wonderful things about the school years is that every September, it’s a brand new beginning. For teachers, for kids, for families, the start of the school year is like a New Year’s celebration of its own, maybe more important than the new calendar year. New backpacks, new notebooks and pencils, new hopes and resolutions, it’s all so hopeful and fresh. We come back to the school year routine with the conviction that this will be the best year ever.

Our message to all our readers, those who know us now and those we hope to reach in the future, is this: if the colonies could fight a war and win it to secure their rights we can win the fight by voting. 

• We can illuminate the stark contrasts between the two proposed directions for our county. 

• We can refuse power grabs and corruption by courts, corporations, and candidates. 

• We can stand up for our cherished public schools, wellsprings of democracy and community.

• We can uphold the separation of church and state. 

• We can guard each individual’s freedom to choose to worship as they wish or not at all. 

• We can champion the rights of ALL the people to exist and thrive consistent with American values of community and pluralism. 

• We can guarantee the right of ALL citizens to their sacred vote. 

If we do not do this, our children will live in a country unrecognizable to us. We can still stop it. In the spirit of the Declaration of Independence and following its impeccable reasoning, we can, in fact must, rise up to choose a free future in a democratic land for our children and their children.

This 4th of July is a new fight to reclaim democracy of the people, by the people, and for the people, lest it perish from the earth.

We, the people, have the power, and we intend to use it.

Those who want to defeat us need first to divide us. Democracy stands on a foundation of equal rights and equal protection for ALL citizens. If we begin to bicker about which citizens are more equal than others, we are lost.

Do not believe the divisive lie that when one group rises up, it pushes another group down. We are ALL Americans, equal before the law, endowed with the same inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. There is room in our schools, our community, and our nation for ALL Americans. Indeed, our diversity is our strength, our resilience, our dazzling cultural wealth. We all do better when we all do better.

That belief is the foundation of our educational system. We can ALL learn, grow, and bring our best to the betterment of all.

We say to every person in our district: we can unite around our children’s need to be valued just as they are. This is how we overcome our differences. This is how we turn away from division and hatred and move toward mutual respect and hope for the future.

The conflicts raging around us are complicated, but our children’s needs are simple: to be accepted, even cherished, and to be educated to their highest potential. We can meet those needs—for EVERY child, for ALL of the children.

The crusade to undermine our public schools using divisive and harmful rhetoric that takes aim at our teachers and most vulnerable students.

It’s a strategy being used by the wealthy and powerful to eradicate a vital institution foundational to our shared democracy, and put profits into private hands.

In this post we share the work of Tony Nabors, Owner and Principal Consultant at Racial Equity Insights and Nicole Cardoza, Founder and CEO of Anti-Racism Daily, who are fighting for racial equity and bringing Black History into American History and into the awareness of all Americans, where it belongs in ALL the months of the year.

Pictured above: Historian Carter G. Woodson initiated the first celebration of Negro History Week in 1926 which led to Black History Month. Source: The Association for the Study of African American Life and History.

“We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must–at that moment–become the center of the universe.”

– Elie Wiesel, The Night Trilogy: Night, Dawn, The Accident

“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.” Thomas Paine

(We know that Tom P. would amend that statement now to include ALL American citizens. ALL those who love freedom must undertake the effort to support and protect it.)

We need to return to school board meetings, to letter-writing, to talking with friends and neighbors, to public comment.

And it doesn’t stop there.

We need to branch out to committee meetings.

On Monday we will celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was born on January 15, 1929 and was assassinated on April 4, 1968. In less than forty years on this earth, he inspired millions and changed the course of history.

Dr. King had some important things to say about education:

“The richest nation on Earth has never allocated enough resources to build sufficient schools, to compensate adequately its teachers, and to surround them with the prestige our work justifies. We squander funds on highways, on the frenetic pursuit of recreation, on the overabundance of overkill armament, but we pauperize education.”

Case in point: yesterday’s Basic Education Funding Commission Report: “Pennsylvania needs to spend $5.4B to close gap between rich and poor schools”

We propose two unique service projects for MLK Day 2024. Continue reading to learn how you can participate.

Lets make 2024 the year we join together to build a more just, inclusive, and equitable 21st century society, comprising ALL Americans.

As we go forward, AFIE will continue advocating to make our schools places where children of all races, genders, religions, abilities, and backgrounds are free to learn all that they—and our nation—need to reach their highest potential.

Continue advocating for vibrant learning communities that meet the needs of ALL CB students. We’re looking at inclusive policies and curriculum, strong academics, honest and accurate history, books in every library that every child can see themselves in, media literacy education, civic learning, district-wide anti-bias, anti-bullying program, good training and support for faculty and staff, and an atmosphere of challenge and support for every kid (okay, we know that’s an ambitious list, but we are here for it!)

Continue to defend public education and fight harmful rhetoric that takes aim at teachers and vulnerable students and seeks to divide the community.

Help bring the community together around our shared hope for the brilliant future of our schools and our democracy, which in turn will deliver a beautiful future for every young person in our schools.

To those of you who made a candle: we hope they burn bright in your homes over the winter break. We hope they bring a sense of hope to your celebrations, whatever they may be, and that they inspire you to keep on working on behalf of our district, our community, our public schools, our democracy, and above all, our precious children.

ALL of them!

The new board is seated, and we commence work to protect and strengthen our community schools so ALL CB kids can grow and thrive to their highest potential. The past two years have shown us that the fight for public education is at its heart a fight for American communities and a more just, equitable, and inclusive democracy itself. And there is no more immediate demonstration of democracy at work than vibrant learning communities where everyone feels welcome and has equal opportunity to pursue their interests and passions.

We are profoundly grateful for the leadership that will help our community schools thrive and flourish, becoming vibrant learning communities for ALL our students.

In America, we believe in the rights of ALL people to an outstanding equitable public education that embraces diversity of all kinds. And now we must turn that belief into healing, listening, learning, and working together to develop ideas into tangible solutions.

Voters reject fear, intolerance, and division to send a resounding message about education: Our children should all have the freedom to learn, to pursue their dreams, and to access a quality education that prepares them for success in a changing world.

If you were out and about this week you probably saw the new misinformation campaign scattered about Bucks County. You know: the ones where it looks like anyone wants porn in our schools and young children are now asking their parents what that even means.

These fear-mongering tactics only serve to divide and upset. They’re meant to distract us from the real issues impacting our kids’ education and our collective power in deciding what solutions might look like.

It’s crucial that we as a community step in and offer our support to protect our kids’ rights to access information and diverse perspectives.

In a pluralistic society, we must make clear that ALL the families are welcome in our schools: all faith traditions, all races, all ethnicities, all abilities, and all identities of every kind. Our schools do not choose which kids are more welcome than others; they welcome them all. Our variety is beautiful, vibrant, healthy, and a source of strength. And those different kids need different books to reflect and amplify their different experiences.