Community Action will make demands of the Grand Rapids Public School Board on funding priorities

On Monday, June 12th, there will be a Community Speak Out, with an opportunity to tell the Grand Rapids Public School Board how you want them to prioritize the 2023 – 2024 GRPS School budget.

People will be gathering at 4pm right across the street from the GRPS Administration building on MLK/Franklin St., just east of Martin Luther King Park, to share food build relationships. Then, at 5:30pm, the community will have a chance to directly communicate with School Board members how they want public money to be spent on public eduction. See the Facebook event for this action here.

This action is being organized by the Urban Core Collective, which has been doing lots of preparation work for this action. The Urban Core Collective has a list of demands that are based on input and feedback that is directly from the community. Those demands include: 

• Improving the Food Service for GRPS students 
• Ensuring the Black students that attend GRPS schools that are appropriately staffed Monitor and publicize indoor air quality for all GRPS buildings 
• Guarantee dependable transportation service for GRPS communities 
• Support student mental health

In addition, there are also Community Budget Priorities, which the Urban Core Collective has identified as:

Improve Food Service for GRPS students

• Set aside funds for food service facilities updates in schools – prioritizing the ability to do scratch cooking and food preparation.
• Set aside funds for appliance purchases/repairs/updates that ensure schools have the ability to cook and prepare food.

Monitor and publicize indoor air quality for all GRPS buildings

• Prioritize Internal Air Quality improvements including HVAC upgrades, that constitute an engagement with the environment surrounding a school building. These updates should prioritize schools located within environmentally hazardous census tracts.

Invest in extracurriculars and the facilities necessary to sustain them

• Prioritize investments that improve extracurricular experiences at GRPS (e.g. art studios, music production, theaters, athletic facilities, etc.)

Utilize a “repair criteria” that aligns with the Strategic Plan goals

• Ensure that facility level improvements are aligned with the strategic objectives of improving outcomes for Black and Latinx students. Align this strategic objective with a repair criteria that accounts for divestments in these student populations over time.

All of the details of these demands can be found at this link.

Building on a legacy of community demands, direct action and participatory democracy with the GRPS

This campaign by the Urban Core Collective is part of a growing movement to demand participatory budgeting, even participatory democracy, where we no long leave major decision making into the hands of election officials. Making demands of elected officials, particularly demanding to have equal input on how we want public money spent is ultimately a form of Direct Action. Direct action is a form of political activism which seeks immediate remedy for perceived ills, as opposed to indirect actions such as electing representatives who promise to provide remedy at some later date.

This practice of Direct Action, which the Urban Core Collective is inviting the community to participate in, is not new, rather it is based on a long tradition that comes out of social movements that have existed over the past two centuries in this country. One such example, which was applied to the Grand Rapids School Board in 1985, was the result of the South African Anti-Apartheid Movement in Grand Rapids. 

The campaign to get the GRPS Board to take a stand against Apartheid was undertaken in 1985. You can read a letter (pages 1 – 2) that Rev. Van Doren had sent to the Finance Committee of the GRPS Board in late August of 1985, which was in response to a meeting the South African Working Group had with GRPS. The letter concludes by saying: 

“Finally, let me say that I am very impressed with the seriousness and sense of responsibility Mr. Nienhuis and the Committee has brought to this task. My hope, of course, is that you will recommend to the School Board a resolution for full divestiture. I think it is both the morally and fiscally responsible thing to do. I respect the fact that you are looking at it thoroughly and seriously. That seriousness will be reflected in whatever comments I make about your recommendations, whatever you decide to do.”

The efforts of the local anti-Apartheid group certainly paid off, since the Grand Rapids Public School Board voted 7 – 2 in favor of condemning South African Apartheid. Here is part of that resolution, which emphatically condemns racial apartheid. 

The entire resolution can be read here (pages 4 – 5), which includes the names of Board members who voted for the resolution and those who did not. The resolution’s position on divestment, was to take a stand against any new investments in South Africa and that they would not do business with corporations also involved in South Africa.

This example of direct action was initiated by the community and made clear demands of the Grand Rapids Public Schools. What the Urban Core Collective is doing with their GRPS demands is simply building on legacy of previous community demands, demands that are rooted in collective liberation. And just like the demands that the Grand Rapids Public Schools not make any investments or have GRPS in any financial institution that was profiting off of South African Apartheid, we can win the funding demands that the Urban Core Collective has organized today!