Create financial self-sufficiency. Organizing meets school reform Advocates of community organizing acknowledge that change is sometimes set in motion by determined individuals or with the help of foundations, civic leaders, or even legislators. Community organizers also argue that the reason few effective reforms and models have been spread widely in our most troubled school systems is the failure to create a broad and powerful constituency for improving public schools. In order to build this constituency, Cate Poe argues in School Reform and Community Organizing, the emphasis must be on organizing parents, older students, and community members. Most urban schools don't work and nobody in power cares enough to fix them.
Schools reflect and reinforce inequalities found elsewhere in our society.
We can't get resources and power to fix schools without organizing and putting pressure on those who now have the resources and power. We'll have to address inequalities outside the schools. They may be kind and helpful to parents and community members, but they don't show real respect for what people know and can do. More and more educators have accepted the idea that real school change is not a collection of tacked-on programs. Community organizing principles say parent and community partnerships cannot just be tacked on either.