When Integrated Schools founder Courtney Mykytyn blogged about Erica Chenoweth’s research showing that ensuring political change takes only about 3.5% of the population to be actively engaged, she estimated that Integrated Schools’ goal comes down to getting just under 3 million White and/or privileged families to resist the impulse to hoard educational resources and instead choose to enroll in public schools that serve those furthest from opportunity in their communities.
If you’re reading this, chances are you’re among those 3 million, and/or in a position to influence someone to join those ranks.
But here’s the thing: reaching the tipping point is not only about growing the number of public school advocates. Chenoweth points to the success of movements that achieve “the active and sustained participation” of that 3.5%. What Courtney called “not bystander-engaged but stand-up-engaged, skin-in-the-game-engaged, working-through-the-messiness-engaged.”
And that’s where Integrated Schools comes in. Everyone should advocate for public education and a more equitable, integrated society, always, but especially as the very idea of public education is under attack. But advocacy without skin in the game – without a commitment to the messy work of integrating our families and learning to be in community with people from all walks of life – isn’t enough to get us to the 3.5% tipping point.
And that’s where you come in. Your active and sustained support for Integrated Schools is what has helped us to influence the decisions of thousands of families across the country and to support them in staying in the work. And it’s your active and sustained support that will help us multiply that impact by a factor of 10 and then another 10 – until we reach the tipping point.
Your active and sustained support looks like:
- Helping increase our visibility – Head to our Bonfire shop to purchase a shirt and help spread the word that Public Schools Save Democracy! Post a picture of you/your family members wearing the shirt and explain what integrated public schools mean to you. (Share them with us too, please!) Order now so you can get your shirt in time to wear it on Integrated Schools’ Day of action: May 17, the anniversary of the Brown v. Board decision.
Participating in our programs, and encouraging others to join us – People connect with Integrated Schools movement by listening to our award-winning Podcast, joining a Book Club session, reaching out to a local chapter or network contact, checking out the resources on our website, or asking to connect with an integrating parent through our Caregiver Connection. Encourage the parents and caregivers in your life to check us out!- Sustaining and growing our work – Our progress to date has been powered by volunteers, with the financial support of one-time and monthly contributors. Now it’s time to pick up the pace. Democracy itself is at stake, and Integrated Schools is ramping up to meet the 3.5% challenge. While we appreciate one-time gifts of any size, sustained growth requires staffing key positions and building or improving the systems that support our operations. Here’s how you can help:
- Become a monthly supporter at $25 a month, and we’ll send you a discount code for your Public Schools Save Democracy gear. This is the perfect way to support us regularly while receiving gear that helps spread the message.
- Become a monthly supporter at $50 a month, and get a discount code and a copy of either Learning in Public by Courtney Martin or Raising White Kids by Jen Harvey.
- Become a monthly supporter at $250 a month, we’ll send you both books and your choice of any item from our Bonfire shop.
Participating in our programs, and encouraging others to join usIn her Nov. 2019 blogpost, Courtney wrote, “Some days it seems that the choices we are making are just a ‘drop in the bucket’ of the work that our nation needs to do. Sometimes it feels like we are just spitting into the “getting the ‘best’ for my kid” wind. And while this is true, it is also true that we are gathering our 3.5%. It won’t happen overnight (it will never happen if we don’t dig in), but it is happening…”
The only way forward is together. Let’s make it happen.
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