Give Kids Good Schools
Wednesday, October 18 2006


Give Kids Good Schools is a national campaign to guarantee a quality public education for every child in the nation. Through national activities and online resources, the campaign seeks to provide Americans with the information and tools they need to take action in their communities and improve their public schools.

By providing the public with information and opportunities to get involved, the campaign hopes to build a broad constituency of Americans who use civic action to improve the quality of public education in their communities and nationally.

Give Kids Good Schools encourages individuals to:
* Learn the facts about quality public schools
* Vote to support and promote quality public education in your community and across the country
* Act by letting public officials and others know that quality public education is a top priority all year long

Give Kids Good Schools is a project of  Public Education Network and a growing coalition of national and local partners who believe all children deserve quality public schools.

As one of the partners with the Give Kids Good School campaign, the BHLC hosted a Meet the School Board Night on Oct. 18th at Breed Elementary. The BHLC hosted and presented an education forum where parents, students and teachers had an opportunity to meet their respective School Board member and learn about the decision making process in their school district. We were honored to have had our School Board Member Monica Garcia lead the accountability panel, a panel representative of the policymakers who impact the quality of the public education our students receive. Panelists included:
Monica Garcia - LAUSD School Board member for District # 2
Carmen Schroeder - Local Superintendent for Local District 5
Carmel Vela-Madady - Principal of Breed Elementary
Kathy Kopp - Teacher at Breed Elementary
Sarai Rodriguez - Student at Breed Elementary
In addition, we had 80 parents in attendance along with community leaders from Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar's office, the Los Angeles Police Department, Green Dot Public Schools, and the BHLC Board of Directors.

Most importantly, we aimed at providing Boyle Heights residents with the information they need to take action in their community and send a clear message that quality public schools for every child is a top priority.
The primary beneficiaries of this forum would be the parents. By exposing them to the knowledge, skills as well as to the decision makers, this would help serve as the first step towards enticing parents to make the commitment to become civically engaged with the leaders in their schools and within public education. The evening consisted of a presentation by the BHLC on quality schools and school district leadership, followed by a workshop for the parents on how to develop critical questions to all the decision makers that help impact our public schools (Board of Education members, Superintendent, Elected Officials, Teachers, Administrators, and students). The final component of the program involved a "Question and Answer" session between parents and the panel where the discussion was based on the decisions that are made which have an impact on the quality of schools in Boyle Heights.