How do teachers, caregivers, and youth build power in the most inequitable and colonized spaces of our nation? In this episode, Mercedes Martinez, president of La Federacíon de Maestros de Puerto Rico (FMPR) shares the inspiring legacy of solidarity and powerbuilding between Puerto Rico and the US communities amidst climate, governmental, and economic crisis. Mercedes shows how the massive defunding of public schools is part of a larger strategy to privatize and capture public budgets and segments of the commons. By connecting the dots between the labor movement, education justice, and privatization, Mercedes uplifts the enduring people-led efforts built to counter catastrophic attacks on the public safety net. As one of the testing grounds for what communities are facing post this federal administration, we learn how to disrupt colonial extraction to protect teachers, young people, and communities and their schools.

In this episode, Juniper Gia Loving from GSA Network and Tyrone Creech, Jr. from G-SAFE talk about how to support trans, queer, 2-spirit (TQ2S) youth in Wisconsin, Texas and across the country. Through leadership development, community organizing, and impact litigation, they break down how attacks on young peoples’ gender and sexuality and attacks on their access to civil and human rights as queer students are foundational to the erosion of democracy, equity, and access to public education for all.

On this episode of Beyond the Bell, Zakiyah Shaakir-Ansari, Co-Executive Director of Alliance for Quality Education and Hiram Marcano from Community Resource Hub talk about the power of youth and caregivers and parents in New York and Philadelphia, the legacy of the black power, civil rights and abolitionist movement, and how they have shaped a national education justice movement. From intergenerational organizing, to activating youth and parent power, Zakiyah and Hiram reflect on the unique contributions of Black and Brown intergenerational organizing that helped set the largest victories of getting police out of schools since the movement began.