Giving Compass' Take:

•  Alex Cortez, writing at The 74, discusses how parents can use their power and influence to change education systems for the better. 

• How can donors better fund parent empowerment initiatives? 

• Read more about parent empowerment as a crucial part of education reform. 

Over the past three decades, education entrepreneurs, parents* and students have demonstrated that with the right innovations, all children can learn and succeed.

But we have also discovered that the “supply” of these educational innovations cannot reach its full potential without creating “actionable demand” to remove the political and policy barriers that prevent education systems from embracing these innovations broadly.

I deliberately use the term “actionable demand” because widespread “latent demand” exists for great schools in all communities.

All communities care equally about the education and future of their children.

But caring is not the same as power.

Most parents in underperforming school systems do not possess the economic power to move to better school systems, and too few know how to activate their personal power to influence change in their current school systems.

There are four strategies that informed and organized parents can use to exercise their power:

  1. Strategy 1 – Parents as Partners: Parents exercising their power as co-educators of their children, either in collaboration with schools or through other resources.
  2. Strategy 2 – Voting With Their Choice: Parents exercising their power (a) to choose the school they believe is the best fit for their children’s needs (within whatever constraints around choice exist in their community), and (b) to make decisions about the many choices within a school that reflect the needs of their children.
  3. Strategy 3 – Voting With Their Collective Voice: Parents exercising their power through collective action on an issue campaign to influence those in authority to change policies.
  4. Strategy 4 – Voting With Their Vote: Parents exercising their power through electoral action to influence who holds a position of authority or to directly decide policy through a ballot initiative.

Read the full article about parent power in education by Alex Cortez at The 74.