Description: Public Education Partners is a statewide coalition of parents, grassroots citizen groups, school board members, educators, and school administrators that advocate for high quality public education.
The Network for Public Education’s NPE/NPE Action Conference , Public Schools: Where Democracy Grows , was held in Washington, D.C. on October 28-29, 2023. This 10 th anniversary conference was attended by over 400 passionate defenders of public education from around the country.
Phyllis Bush, founder of Northeast Indiana Friends of Public Education (NEIFPE) and a member of the NPE Board, had once written: “Seeing old friends and meeting new education activists is energizing and hopeful. In this brave new world of education privatization, it is easy to become dispirited and frustrated, and yet being together with like-minded folks is engaging, inspiring, and thoughtful and gives hope that together we can be the voice of reason and the change that we want.”
After opening remarks from NPE Executive Director Carol Burris and a welcoming address by NPE President Diane Ravitch, Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings, president of the National Academy of Education, eloquently presented the conference’s opening keynote, entitled “Regaining a ‘Public’ for Public Education.” What an appropriate topic in this year filled with so many attacks on our system of public schools.