Giving Compass' Take:

· Writing for EdSurge, Jennifer Poon talks about the recent LA teacher strikes and addresses the need for reform in the whole education system. 

· How can funders help to create the systems changes that education needs to better serve students? 

· Read about education reform and accountability. 

Over the past week, friends of mine—former colleagues who teach in the Los Angeles Unified School District—stood outside their school, exposed to the cold, rain and loss of daily wages. Undeterred, they documented their cause on social media and found solidarity with others fighting for the district to reinvest in its schools rather than divest them to private interests.

This historic moment touches me both personally and professionally. I stepped out of the classroom in 2010 to work on education systems change at the state and national level, learning from creative public educators across the country. But the debate over reinvesting in public education in LAUSD contextualizes my work, resurfacing all the things we did—and wish we could have done—to promote success for all learners.

To reinvest is to “put the profit on a previous investment back into the same place.” The union, United Teachers Los Angeles, has been calling on LAUSD to reinvest its budget and reserves toward resolving critical needs in its schools. In my time there, we often enrolled more students per class than we had desks to seat them in (mind you, I had 40 desks). We were lucky to have a full class set of books and were rationed two reams of copy paper per teacher for the entire semester. Our rotating crew of counselors and support professionals felt constantly overwhelmed by the volume of students in their care.

Read the full article about change in education by Jennifer Poon at EdSurge.