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IEL Welcomes Presidential Candidates to the Community Schools Movement

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IEL Welcomes Presidential Candidates to the Community Schools Movement

Contact:
                  Leilah Mooney Joseph
202-822-8405 x 131

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Institute for Educational Leadership (IEL) President Johan E. Uvin issued the following statement this week after Elizabeth Warren became the third presidential candidate in recent months to include the Community Schools Strategy in her education platform. Warren’s plan calls for 25,000 community schools by 2030. This goal reflects the big goal of 25,000 community schools by 2025 for which the community schools field has been advocating. U.S. Senator and presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is similarly pushing for $5 billion annually for community schools, and former Vice President and presidential candidate Joe Biden wants to bring community schools to another 300,000 students and families.

“As the home for the Coalition for Community Schools, IEL is proud that a number of presidential candidates are advocating for the community schools strategy as part of their vision for our public education system. These candidates are listening to what educators, families, students, and communities have been saying for years—community schools are key to an equitable public education system that sets students, families, and communities up for success.

“Together, these presidential candidates recognize what we have long known: that community schools are a powerful, evidence-based strategy that strengthens student achievement as well as their families and communities. IEL will continue to collaborate with our partners to impress upon all presidential candidate the importance of expanding community schools. Our children, our youth, our adults, and our families in the most under-resourced communities need schools that support the education of the whole child and youth. Community schools do just that.”

For more information on Community Schools, IEL encourages all presidential candidates to visit Ed2020.org. IEL is a proud member of Education 2020, a coalition of diverse organizations with a shared vision for an education agenda that promotes universal inclusion and access to ongoing learning opportunities for everyone living in America. The community schools strategy is included among this group’s recommendations and embodies the Coalition’s principle of equity to ensure that the necessary conditions for learning are in place for every student to succeed.

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About the Institute for Educational Leadership: Founded in 1964, the Institute for Educational Leadership’s mission is to partner with under-resourced communities to equip leaders to better prepare children, youth, adults, and families for postsecondary education and training, rewarding careers, and civic and community engagement. For more information about the Institute for Educational Leadership, visit: http://iel.org/