On April 30th, 19 senators voted not to confirm Saunders. Unfortunately, within minutes of the vote, Governor Scott appointed Saunders in an interim position, which could last until February 2025. It is unprecedented for state senators to vote down a nomination. Together we made the unprecedented occur. There are further action steps we can take to build on this momentum.

We hosted our second annual statewide Education for Social Justice Conference on Saturday, April 13th, at White River Valley High School in South Royalton. The theme was “Powered by the People, Collective Power for Collective Liberation”. The conference was planned by a group of youth and adults from all the state over the span of six months. There were about 225 in-person attendees and about 40 virtual attendees.

The move by Phil Scott to appoint a Secretary of Education that has no experience working in schools is an insult to all educators working tirelessly to serve Vermont students. We have the power to reject this appointment by speaking out to our State Senators and encouraging them to say no to the appointment of Zoie Saunders in order to preserve and protect our public schools. We demand a pro-public schools Secretary of Education and will accept nothing less. Take action by sending your senator a letter.

Many people in our community may have heard about the conflict between the Odanak and the Abenaki where the Odanak is denouncing the state-recognized Abenaki tribes as pretending to be indigenous. Whether or not we address it publicly, these conversations are happening and intersect with the mission and vision of the Education Justice Coalition.

While the Education Quality Standards passed the initial phase of the state board in the spring of 2023 it is now in the rule-making process. Now the VT State Board of Education is watering down the definition of discrimination to exclude discrimination based on socioeconomic class. We say keep the definition of discrimination inclusive to protect all students!

We had our annual full coalition retreat at Hulbert Outdoor Center in Fairlee, VT. About forty youth and adults invested in the coalition came together to reflect on the past and plan for the future.

Right now a Holocaust Education bill (S. 87) is in senate education that will require all students grades 6th through 12th to learn about the holocaust for at least six hours a year. While we firmly support the teaching of the Holocaust we believe 1) Holocaust should be taught in depth and in context and 2) Genocide is a global issue and this bill should include a global perspective.

In Summer 2023, we hosted our first Summer Social Justice Camp for middle and high school students in Chittenden County. The goal of the camp was to not only create an incredible learning experience for youth in Chittenden County, but to also provide a framework so youth across the state have access to a camp like this. Read about the camp and check out our toolkit.

We are being confronted with challenging feelings and questions regarding religion, land rights, war, and genocide. These feelings and questions and maybe even hate have been showing up in classrooms. This can be incredibly difficult to handle. We’ve put together some resources for talking about the violence and confronting Islamophobia and anti-semitism.

Esther Charlestin experienced extreme racism and had inadequate support from her school district in dealing with it. Read her story and learn about what the Education Justice Coalition is doing to support educators of color.

The Education Justice Coalition has partnered with Outright Vermont to train a cohort of 22 youth across the state in organizing. Saturday was the first of five day-long training sessions spread throughout the school year.

EdJ hosted our first annual BIPOC Overnight Camp in 2023. Read about the experience and scroll through our many memorable pictures!

The Education Justice Coalition brought three youth from Colchester, Derby, and Winooski to the annual Youth Leadership Institute held by the New England Youth Organizing Network and supported by the Nellie Mae Education Foundation. Read about our experience and look at photos.

Learn about our first annual Summer Social Justice Camp.

We worked with our community to compile a list of Summer Equity & Antiracism Professional Development for educators. Check out the list we came up with!

We are excited to share that on May 18th, the Vermont State Board of Education unanimously passed Act.1’s updated Inclusive Education Quality Standards (EQS). Read more to find out what’s next.

The House Education Committee is considering excluding students from S.103 which would help expand the definition of what counts as harassment. We need your help to ensure students are included in this bill!

The Education Justice Coalition of Vermont and partner organizations hosted its first annual statewide Education for Social Justice conference on Saturday, April 1st at White River Valley High School in South Royalton. The theme was “Reimagining Schools, Connecting Communities”.

The “threat assessment” proposal includes no guidelines, due process or privacy protections, requires police participation; likely to cause disproportionate harm to children from low-income households, children from BIPOC communities, and children with disabilities.

Recently, a Christian school girls basketball team refused to play a championship game against an opponent with a transgender student athlete. We are uplifting Outright Vermont’s message in solidarity.