Thousands of Students Launch Move School Forward: 30 Days of Action Campaign

Thousands of students from across the country are coming together in the month of July to launch the Move School Forward: 30 Days of Action campaign and to demand education justice for all students, including action around anti-racist curricula and police-free schools.

Move School Forward represents over a dozen youth-driven organizations in the Education Justice Collective, including SVT, Student Voice, Our Turn, Youth Activism Project, UrbEd Advocates and others, and supporting organizations like The Aspen Institute Education & Society Program and Youth Service America. Together, thousands of students from these organizations have signed onto Move School Forward.

Move School Forward’s principles for a more equitable educational system includes ensuring that school curriculums accurately portray the US’ history of oppression and injustice, increasing funding for support services in schools while defunding policing, elevating student voice, supporting marginalized students, closing the digital divide and more. Through the 30 Days of Action campaign, students are taking action on these principles through supporting local action like protests and legislation, sharing information and resources on social media and holding online events to amplify the stories of those most impacted by educational inequity.

“School as I knew it was completely upended during the spring semester. As we approach another year, we must imagine what a school that can create safety and support for all students looks like,” said Maodan Tohouri, a high school senior at Amador Valley High School and a team member at Student Voice, a student-led nonprofit organization focused on combating educational inequity. “Through the Move School Forward 30 Days of Action, I am excited to take steps that build toward a school structure that reflects my values by participating in student-led town halls in Pleasanton.”

Emanuelle Sippy, Co-director of the Prichard Committee Student Voice Team and a senior at Henry Clay High School in Lexington, Kentucky said, “Move School Forward is exactly what we need to enact the change our school system so desperately needs. These principles were not only crafted by us, they come out of our commitment to cultivating community in a system that often suppresses our questions, our experiences, and our identities. These principles come out of all different kinds of action: research, protests, legislative work, storytelling, from grassroots organizing to meetings with commissioners. This is the roadmap; we just have to follow it.”

The full set of Move School Forward guiding principles, along with the form for organizations to sign onto Move School Forward as a youth-driven Education Justice Collective member or an adult-driven supporting organization, can be found at moveschoolforward.org. To receive daily updates on action to support the 30 Days of Action campaign, students and adult allies can also sign onto Move School Forward as individual supporters.

About the Education Justice Collective

As we are inundated with calls for “reopening schools” and returning to normal, it is crucial that we demand a just future for our education system that includes students as full participants in the decision-making process, from the school to state levels. Where people are reimagining the future of schools, the voices of the most marginalized students are consistently sidelined. The Education Justice Collective, including KSVT, Student Voice, Our Turn, UrbEd Advocates, Youth Activism Project, Students for Equitable Public Schools, GenUp, Students for Education Equity, Teens Take Charge, Young Organizers United, HISD Student Congress, Oregon Student Voice, and IowaSLI‍

About KSVT

‍The Kentucky Student Voice Team is a statewide organization of young people who are co-creating more just, democratic Kentucky schools & communities as research, policy & advocacy partners. From 2012 to 2021, KSVT was incubated at the Prichard Committee, a nonpartisan, citizen-led organization working to improve education in Kentucky for all ages.‍