Lift Us Up, Don't Push Us Out!

“A welcome addition to most public and academic library collections.”
—Library Journal

“[An] impressive collection by a diverse array of education activists . . . Contributions are written as first-person narratives, giving this collection the feel of shared knowledge toward movement building.”
—Rethinking Schools

“Lift Us Up! Don’t Push Us Out! is a bold and exciting book that presents the stories we never hear—powerful stories of successful grassroots organizing in schools and communities across the nation led by parents, students, educators, and allies. The lessons we can learn from these inspiring activists and campaigns need to be spread far and wide. They show how social justice unionism plays a vital role in the fight for equity and justice for all our children and in the growing movement against privatization of public education.”
—Karen Lewis, president of the Chicago Teachers Union

“Full of powerful ideas, powerful examples, powerful policy strategies, and powerful people, this book touches both mind and heart. These compelling stories—told by those who lived them—teach us about and advance the much-needed educational justice movement.”
—Jeannie Oakes, Presidential Professor Emeritus, University of California at Los Angeles, and author of Keeping Track: How Schools Structure Inequality

“Each one of the essays is a tour de force. You are captivated by the passion, the fury, the courage, the honesty, and the determination that is expressed so brilliantly by the writers, who have found a way, by working arm-in-arm with others, to fight for educational justice for all children. This book brings the powerful and authentic voices of parent and community movement leaders into our classrooms and communities.”
—Karen Mapp, senior lecturer on education, Harvard Graduate School of Education

“Featuring diverse and powerful stories of fights against the corporate degradation of American schooling, Lift Us Up, Don’t Push Us Out! weaves an inspiring vision of what education could and should be if we valued all children and their potential. It could hardly be more timely.”
—Charles Payne, author of So Much Reform, So Little Change: The Persistence of Failure in Urban Schools

“At last! This book of victorious stories guides us through the resistance to racism and assaults on public schools. It is incredibly inspiring to see how educators, students, parents, and community organizations—people of color, in particular—are joining in the fight back to defeat school closures, charter expansions, and other privatization schemes. Organizing is key as uplifting policy solutions, community schools, and intergenerational movement-building replace appalling alienation and rampant disinvestment in education.”
—Dr. Joyce E. King, Benjamin E. Mays Endowed Chair for Urban Teaching, Learning, and Leadership, Georgia State University

“Lift Us Up, Don’t Push Us Out! weaves together the stories of parent organizers, student activists, and committed educators who are forging a powerful movement for educational justice across the United States. Through compelling first-person narratives, the book highlights grassroots activism as a strategy for making schools culturally responsive, inclusive, and equitable.”
—John Rogers, professor of education, University of California at Los Angeles, and director of UCLA’s Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access (IDEA)