MOM is an independent nonprofit organization that currently includes about 700 parents, explained its co-founder, Mili Bonilla . The organization grew out of adult literacy classes attended by graduates of South Bronx schools who could barely read or write. Realizing that the literacy classes were a consequence of their failing schools, a few parents decided to fight for school reforms, so their children would not graduate without even a basic education, as they had done. MOM also mobilized the community to vote at the School Board elections and elected two of their members to the Board. Through a persistent and organized campaign, MOM members were able to oust the superintendent, who had been in control of the District 8 schools for more than 20 years, and initiate the needed reforms.
MOM continues to provide leadership training and space for parents to organize.
Systemic school changes can occur only if based on grassroots movements, says Bonilla, for whom parental power, rather than parental involvement, is the answer for attaining policy changes. Among the reforms initiated in District 8 by the new superintendent was the closure of a large high school and its replacement with smaller academies. In New York City, explains Edwina Branch , small schools are those with 600 students or less. After being with the New York City schools for many years, Branch felt it was time to change. She got involved with CCE's Campus School Project in 1993 and is now the founder and principal of New School for Arts and Sciences , an alternative school with 350 students from grades 9-12, which is part of the James Monroe Education Complex Schools in the Bronx.