I support the Youth Mandate for Presidential Candidates: Permanently Dismantle the School-to-Prison-and-Deportation Pipeline. Federal, state, and local elected representatives must follow Black and Brown young people's demands for educational and racial justice, beginning with the following core demands:

• Fund education not incarceration

  • Divest all federal funds from police and criminalizing infrastructure in schools.

  • Invest federal funding in effective non-punitive school climate strategies like restorative justice, mental health supports, and hiring counselors and social workers.

  • Fully Fund Title I and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and provide guidance on other funding mechanisms.

• Restore and strengthen the civil rights of students

  • Ensure that Black and Brown young people have meaningful input into the process to select and appoint a Secretary of Education who has a proven track record of working to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline.

  • Fully fund and staff the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights (OCR). Ensure that those who are hired believe in disparate impact analysis and evaluating systemic violations of civil rights.

  • Strengthen and re-issue civil rights guidance for students of color, students with disabilities, immigrant students, female students, and students who are transgender, and all LGBTQIA+ young people.

  • Restore and strengthen access to higher education for people who have been criminalized or otherwise impacted by the school-to-prison pipeline.

• Uplift public education; end the private takeover of schools

  • End federal funding for charter schools and voucher programs.

  • Implement a moratorium on Charter Expansion.

  • Fund the Community Schools model.

P.S. Since its release, the Youth Mandate and young people’s organizing has made a big impact with features in Teen Vogue and on the A Way with Anoa Podcast. Further, these efforts have caused several of the most progressive Democratic candidates to respond including an op-ed piece in Essence from Senator Elizabeth Warren as well as features in Buzzfeed and Seventeen Magazine following a roundtable discussion with presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders.

In 2020, we will continue to amplify the voices of youth of color who are leading the fight for equity, and for racial and educational justice; through the 2020 Presidential election and beyond. The youth have a mandate for presidential hopefuls, but they also have a mandate for local elected officials and school boards. That is racial and educational justice. In 2020 we will be holding all levels of government accountable to that mandate. Support them by signing your name in support of the Youth Mandate!