On October 6^th, public education supporters organized one of the largest coordinated public education actions ever, a series of local school “walk-ins”.  The walk-ins demonstrated support for the schools, “all our students deserve,” and lifted up specific local issues of equity and opportunity.

Over 2,000 schools with over 100,000 people were engaged. Many walk-ins included district administrators, local elected officials, civil rights leaders, clergy and of course parents and grandparents.

The campaign for the schools, “all students deserve,” is coordinated through the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools. See AROS principles here.

AROS held its first coordinated walk-in on February 17^th of this last year with over 40 cities participating. It then held a second set of walk-ins on May 4^th, with over 70 cities participating. With 234 cities participating on October 6^th it has become clear that the movement to defend our public schools is rising. Example walk-in Video: Minneapolis.

Key Stats:

The National Education Association (NEA) had 98 cities registered for the event and over 1,000 NEA represented schools participated in the walk-ins. 73% of NEA locals participating in the walk-ins were doing so for the first time.  Locals chose one or more local issues to lift up on the day of the walk-in. Below is a breakdown of the issues identified and percentage of locals that choose them:

Less Testing                                                             50%

Takeover resistance                                               12%

Increased Funding                                                  58%

Class Size                                                                    24%

School Closure                                                             7%

Educating the Whole Child                                    39%

Charter School Expansion                                       31%

Community Schools                                                  36%

Equitable Revenue For Schools                              30%

Restorative Justice                                                      16%

Other                                                                               20%

·                     62% of registered NEA locals requested help with media outreach from NEA Communications.

·                     79% of NEA registered locals received posters and stickers and postcards for the event.

Notable NEA Union Highlights

Los Angeles, CA:                     200 Schools

Anchorage, AK:                        5 Schools

Milwaukee, WI:                        117 Schools

Sacramento, CA                       75 Schools

San Francisco, CA:                   20 Schools

Fort Wayne, IN:                         18 Schools

Kansas:                                         11 Schools

Forsyth County, NC:                36 Schools

Louisiana:                                    64 Schools

Kalamazoo, MI                            25 Schools

Minneapolis, MN                        13 Schools

Winston-Salem, NC:                 30 Schools

Las Cruces, NM:                           35 Schools

Seattle, WA                                   70 Schools

San Diego, CA:                              100 Schools

The staff of Rufus King High School in Milwaukee wore Black Lives Matter t-shirts to their walk in.

National News:

Lily Eskelsen at Raleigh North Carolina

Think Progress

Jet Magazine OpEd

Democratic VP Candidate Tim Kaine also participated in a walk-in in Philadelphia

This NEA Story Captures the breadth of national attention and press coverage received for this event. It also captures social media, pictures and video. Please click on link below to see the scope of the coverage and social media attention the walk-ins garnered:

The #4 Trending Topic on Twitter on the Morning of October 6^th was #ReclaimOurSchools.

Just in Radio and T.V. interviews alone, we had a verified impression reach of over 3.6 million people.  See complete additional clips after the list of participating cities.

Participating Cities   Little Rock	New Smyrna Beach
Anchorage	Orange City
North Little Rock	Orlando
Phoenix	Ormond Beach
Fresno	Pierson
Los Angeles	Port Orange
Oakland	Volusia County
Sacramento	Wesley Chapel
San Diego	Atlanta
San Francisco	Akin
Denver	Berwyn
Jefferson County	Bolingbrook
Lakewood	Champaign
Ansonia	Chicago
Bridgeport	Chicago Heights
Bristol	Cicero
Hartford	Crystal Lake
Manchester	DeKalb
Meriden	Downers Grove
Middletown	Dupo
New Britain	Granite City
Vernon	Greenwood
Waterbury	Harmony
West Haven	Homer
Windham	Kankakee
Washington	Lincolnwood
Apopka	Lockport
Coral Springs	Loves Park
Dade City	Lyons
Dania Beach	Machesney Park
Daytona Beach	Madison
Daytona Beach Shores	Morton Grove
DeBary	Niles
Deerfield Beach	Palatine
DeLand	Palos Hills
DeLeon Springs	Park Forest
Deltona	Peoria
Edgewater	Peotone
Enterprise	Plainfield
Fort Lauderdale	Quincy
Hollywood	River Grove
Lake Helen	Romeoville
Maitland	Skokie
Miramar	South Holland
Springfield	Marblehead
Summit	Medway
Swansea	Melrose
University Park	Methuen
Wilmette	North Attleboro
Woodstock	Peabody
Fort Wayne	Randolph
Emporia	Revere
Manhattan	Salem
Wichita	Saugus
Danville	Springfield
Bastrop	Stoneham
Baton Rouge	Swampscott
Franklin	Wachusett
Greensburg	Worcester
Hammond	Baltimore
Jena and Olla	Baltimore County
Keithville	Forestville
Lafayette	Howard County
LaPlace	Prince George County
Monroe	Detroit
Morehouse Parish	Flint
New Iberia	Kalamazoo
Ouachita	Macomb / Wayne Counties
Shreveport	Duluth
St. Martinville	Minneapolis
West Monroe	Wilmar
Amesbury	Greensboro
Amherst	Raleigh
Billerica	Winston-Salem
Boston	Jersey City
Bourne	New Brunswick
Cambridge	Newark
Canton	Perth Amboy
Chelmsford	TRENTON
Concord	Las Cruces
Dartmouth	Dayton
Duxbury	Douglas County
East Hampton	Commack
Fall River	Cortland
Framingham	Dehli
Holliston	Geneseo
Lawrence	Hoosick Falls
Lowell	Massena
Lynn	Medina
Malden	Morrisville
New York City	Rawson
Newburgh	Toledo
North Babylon	Van Wert
Old Westbury	Moore
Potsdam	Oklahoma City
Rockville Center	South Oklahoma City
Rocky Point	Tulsa
Syracuse	Central Point
West Babylon	Forest Grove
Botkins	Hillsboro
Cincinnati	Reynolds
Cleveland	Harrisburg
Cleveland Heights	Pittsburgh
Convoy	Pottstown
Findlay	Dallas
Fremont	Houston
Genoa	Evergreen
Georgetown	Pasco
Greenon	Renton
Jackson Milton	Seattle
Lebanon	Tukwila
Newton Falls	Vancouver
Oregon	Fond Du Lac
Port Clinton	Green Bay
Philadelphia

Parents and teachers rally for public education funding at schools across the country (The Washington Post)

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.

Restoring Pell Grants for students at collapsed for-profit colleges (Politico)

The Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools is mobilizing thousands of parents, students and educators at 238 schools across the country today to protest inadequate funding of public education, diversion of public dollars to charter schools, and funding inequities in black and brown communities. Participants will gather outside public schools before the start of the school day and “walking in” en masse. AROS expects roughly 100,000 people to participate — “probably more,” a spokesman told Morning Education.  In Massachusetts, walk-ins will campaign against Question 2, a ballot measure that would allow for the expansion of charter schools in the state. Many of the demonstrations will be led by teachers’ unions — NEA President Lily Eskelsen García will attend a walk-in in Wake County, N.C., for instance — while others are being coordinated by parent groups, such as in Prince George’s County, Md.

Walk-in participants back public schools (Kenosha News)

Ferguson was upbeat and enthusiastic despite the limited turnout, saying she wasn’t disappointed.  “Absolutely not,” Ferguson said. “This is the first event of its kind in Kenosha, and this is the first school. It’s being done at many schools in Milwaukee. It’s being done statewide for public education. This is to raise awareness about how important it is to fund public education. The state needs to fund us.”

 

Teachers and parents in 200 cities stage walk-ins for school funding (Daily Kos)

“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.”

 

Frustrated Parents Rally Nationwide To ‘Reclaim Our Schools’ (Huffington Post)

“In a moment when a couple dozen investment bankers in the U.S. together make more than every kindergarten teacher in the country combined, we know something is very wrong,” said Blair. “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.”

 

Chicago area teachers plan walk-in Thursday to ‘Reclaim Our Schools’ (abc7)

Parents, students, teachers and staff will take part in the national “Reclaim Our Schools” day of action Thursday, to focus on what is lacking in U.S. school districts.

Activists say less funding and less teachers mean larger class sizes, special education cuts and an overworked school staff.

Gearing Up For Strike, CPS Teachers Rally For More School Funding (CBS-Chicago)

“Here at Taft we have overcrowded classrooms; 36, 38 kids in a classroom. We have one social worker for 3,200 kids,” he said.

Tim Kaine Visits Kids At Philadelphia School, Teaches Hardball Politics (CBS-Philly)

In a visit to Spring Garden Elementary School, Tim Kaine said he didn’t think Donald Trump was a good role model for children, and he saw distress in the Republican camp.

 

“I think there’s a level of desperation in the Trump campaign right now. Donald clearly did a very very poor job at the debate — at his first debate. And then two nights ago, his running mate basically threw him under the bus.”

 

Kaine visits Philly school, teachers talk contract (The Inquirer Daily News)

“We are being squeezed into nonexistence,” Malone said. “We deserve a fair contract.”

Thousands “walk in” for public schools in largest coordinated education action in history(KRWG TV/ FM npr)

“We know what can happen when students have the opportunity to learn in environments that are safe, adequately funded, inspiring, and positioned to help them reach their full potential,” Eskelsen García said. “Across the country today, people who believe in the power of public education are proclaiming that we will not apologize for standing up for the needs of our students, our educators, communities, and public schools. All of us—students, educators, parents and the entire community are all in for public education.”

 

Public Education Walk-in to Tomahawk School District (Northwoods Radio)

The Walk-In for Public Education is organized by the local Educators Association, and on a larger scale by the National Education Association. More than 200 communities from coast to coast were expected to participate in their own events.

The goal is to bring awareness to financial cuts to public school funding while also bringing positive support to the district and its educators.

Michigan students participating in national walk-in to demand quality education (WWMT)

“Will we prepare our students and our communities to thrive not just today but tomorrow? And together 900 schools across the country, thousands of parents we demand it and we will not stop until we get it,” said AROS National Director Keron Blair.

School Funding Walk-In Protests Happening Across Connecticut (NBC-CT)

Parents, teachers and students who are concerned about how public schools are funded are holding walk-ins at schools in Connecticut today, as well as across the nation, in protest and to call on leaders to better fund the schools.

CT schools to hold a walk-in to send messages to their communities (NEWS 8)

Nine Meriden schools are taking part in this event, as well as several other school districts across the state. The goal behind these walk-ins is to “reclaim the schools” and shine a spotlight on all the good that teachers do and the success of their students. The event also is used to send a powerful message.

 

Walk-in for education (The Emporia Gazette)

The walk-in for education focused on the importance of adequately funding education. Students created signs for the event expressing their opinions. Some of the signs read:

“We love our teachers.”

“We deserve an education.”

“We love our school.”

“Quality education.”

OKCPS superintendent, lawmaker, teachers to participate in ‘walk-in’ at metro school (FOX 25)

The superintendent of Oklahoma’s biggest school district, a state lawmaker and hundreds of teachers, parents and students will hold a “walk-in” Thursday in Oklahoma City.

School “Walk-In” Happens Early Thursday Morning (WMUK 102.1)

“There’s been a lot of research showing that that the tests are actually more of an indicator of how much poverty a student deals with rather than how successful they are academically,” she says.

DuPont Middle takes part in national AFT school ‘walk-in’ (Metro News)

“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,” Peters said.

 

Champaign rallies for education (WAND17)

Several Champaign schools are beginning their day with rallies and a “Walk In” to support public education Thursday.

 

Cleveland Heights Schools Plan ‘Walk-In’ Oct. 6 (Cleveland Heights Patch)

The ‘walk-ins’ are actually mini rallies that start 15 minutes prior to the school day. After the rallies, the school day will begin on-schedule. The event is behind held in conjunction with The Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools (AROS), an organization that works on behalf of “educational justice and equity in access to school resources and opportunities.”

 

Toledo teachers ‘walk in’ to press for education standards changes (The Blade)

“Our teachers want less testing. Parents want less testing. Our teachers want authentic assessment and a realistic view of how their child is doing. Our communities want that,” he said. “Our parents don’t believe their students are doing F work, and our teachers know they’re not. And they want a reflective tool. They want something that reflects the hard work that the kids are doing.”

 

An ‘empowering’ early morning walk for North Attleboro teachers (The Chronicle Sun)

“The purpose of this is to show our pride in our community and our support of everything we do in our schools,” she said. “We want to show that we will keep doing what we can for our students.”

Emporia High School hosts walk-in event about educational funding (KVOE)

As for the walk-in event itself, Emporia High School students and faculty showed pride in their school by creating different posters about why education funding is so important for the welfare of Kansas residents.

 

Activists vow to keep fighting for Detroit schools (The Detroit News)

“I was in high school when the desegregation order was signed in 1971,” Bellovich said. “White people left in droves,” which he said challenged the viability of the neighborhood school model in Detroit.

“When I was a student, we were held up as a national model for great schools,” Bellovich said.

That’s not the case anymore, said Shawn Kendrick, a Detroit schools parent who worried that Detroit students not only were behind their suburban counterparts, but students globally.

 

Red River United Holds ‘Walk-In’ for Public Education (News Radion710 KEEL)

“It is the promise to boys and girls all over our nation, the opportunity to have a bus pick you up every day and transport you safely to school, to have a teacher waiting for you behind closed doors, and to have a nutritional lunch, and to transport you back home safely every day,” Lansdale said. “That’s called the promise of public education.”

Port Clinton teachers, administrators seek school reform (News Herald)

Both Grime and Adkins said the walk-in is not directly related to the recent controversial state report cards on school districts. The Port Clinton City School District received an “A” on graduation rate and a “B” on progress, but a “D” on achievement and an “F” in “gap closing,” which tracks “how well schools are meeting the performance expectations for our most vulnerable populations of students in English language arts, math and graduation.”

 

Fresno teachers ‘walk-in’ to support state school-funding tax (The Fresno Bee)

“Instead of a walk-out, it’s a walk-in because we wanted to show we are in support of our parents and students,” said Mo Kashmiri, associate executive director of FTA. “We don’t want to go back to the days of layoffs and cutbacks. We’re going to fight for our students and our profession. We’re sick of not being No. 1.”

 

Anchorage Participates in National Walk-Ins with over 200 Cities (Youralaskalink)

“Anchorage students deserve the best possible education we can provide”, said Brinna Wojtalewicz, Anchorage Education Association President in a press release. “By encouraging students, parents, and educators to work together we can make Anchorage schools and community stronger.”

Dozens walk in Springfield opposed to Question 2 (22 WWLP)

Ipsita Lizardi, a parent of 11 and 12 year old’s, is passionate about high quality public education. “I was educated around the world and I chose public schools in Springfield because I met the teachers and they are incredibly dedicated, and if there’s going to be any expansion of funding for education, it should be for the teachers.”

 

Crowell Elementary rally urges support of Prop. 55, Turlock bonds (The Modesto Bee)

“I am a property owner with lots of acres, and it greatly affects me. But as a community member who pays a great deal of property tax and an employee of the district, I fully support N and O,” Blount said as she waved a sign at passing cars on Geer Road.  Beside her, sixth-grade teacher April Welch said passing Proposition 55 was essential for low-income schools, including Crowell. “We want to give them the best we can here to raise them up and give them the best chance at college,” Welch said.

 

Kalamazoo teachers to demonstrate for reduction in standardized tests (mLive- Michigan)

“Tests don’t take into account of all the other aspects of (a student’s) life like poverty,” she said.

 

‘Walk-in’ for better school funding draws teachers, students (Journal Inquirer)

“We will never walk out on public education,” Cohen said. “We will never walk out on our students. Today, in a sign and a show of solidarity, we are walking in to guarantee a great public school for each and every student.”

 

Students stage walk-in to support public education (Las Cruces Sun-News)

“We don’t believe in the privatization of the schools,” Whygles said. “And we need more funding to support the students. Students are our future, and we need to put money into our future.”

 

Tara High rolls out a monster walk-in and rally (12 KSLA News)

AROS says 1,000 schools in 200 cities participated in the event. While signs were given to students to write whatever they wanted, the students did not go negative. Some used the Alliance’s “We Demand the Schools All Our Children Deserve.” Others hand-wrote “All Our Children Deserve… A Voice, A Safe Environment, or Better Recreation.”

 

West Haven ‘Walk-In’ highlights importance of public education (New Haven Register)

“Today is a testament to what we can do together,” said Malloy-Scanlon, adding later that “together, we make a difference.”

 

Teachers and parents in 200 cities stage walk-ins for school funding (Daily Kos)

“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.”

 

Manhattan High School hosts walk-in for support of schools (13WIBW)

“We absolutely cut more than a million dollars from our budget during this block grant period of time. And we had to let go of over 70 full time employees, 12 of those were teachers,” said Aaron Estabrook, Manhattan-Ogden USD 383 board member.

 

Trenton students told that their lives matter (The Trentonian)

The morning culminated with a walk-in at each school site. The local Trenton AROS (Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools) coalition was one of 200 districts across the country advocating for schools that our students deserve. As students and staff entered the building you could hear the chants of “Whose schools? Our schools; Whose kids? Our kids.”

 

High schools bring attention to school funding ( 13 WIBW)

Manahattan High School and Emporia High School participated in a “walk-in” to bring attention to what they say public schools provide for students.