Advocates Convene on the State of Black and Brown Education Amid ICE Violence, Privatization, and School Policing
August 13, 2026
Washington, DC — As students across the U.S. return to classrooms this fall, families are navigating threats to their children’s safety, stability and access to a quality education. Today, advocates addressed immigration enforcement near schools, the accelerating privatization of public education, and the ongoing fight for police-free schools. Movement leaders and attorneys gathered for “The State of Black and Brown Education,” a briefing convened by Advancement Project, Alliance for Educational Justice, EdTrust and the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools.
The briefing comes at a critical moment as communities continue to rally to keep immigration enforcement away from schools and surrounding communities; parents, educators and civil rights advocates fight school closures and urge governors not to opt into the federal school voucher scheme; and students nationwide push to remove police and surveillance from school campuses. Families and educators alike are fighting for a vision of actual safety for Black and brown students, their schools and communities at large.
“Black and brown students are being asked to endure the fear of immigration enforcement showing up near their bus stops and classrooms while at the same time witnessing how public dollars are being diverted from the schools that serve them and instead invested in more policing, surveillance and inaccessible school options. These are not separate crises, nor are they race-neutral. Immigrant justice, education equity, and the police-free schools’ movement are all connected. To parents, students and school leaders: stay informed, speak up when local officials promote policies that put our children at risk. Silence is not an option when the safety and education of our students are on the line,” said Adaku Onyeka-Crawford, Opportunity to Learn Program Director at Advancement Project.
“Like race or socioeconomic status, a child’s immigration status should never determine the quality of their education or the height of their aspirations. Immigration policy is education policy, and neither is colorblind. When fear keeps children and families from schools, classrooms, and other critical resources, it creates an educational equity and civil rights crisis that disproportionately harms Black and brown communities. This back-to-school season, education leaders must put clear, strong safeguards in place to ensure schools remain places of learning, opportunity, and belonging, not fear and exclusion,” said Alejandra T. Vázquez Baur, Director of Immigrant Students Policy, Advocacy, and Partnerships at EdTrust.
“Communities ranging from Logan County, WV to North Little Rock, AR to San Antonio, TX to Anaheim, CA are uniting across racial, geographic, and partisan divides to advocate for the schools all students deserve. This back to school season, we are rejecting the $7.3 billion proposed cuts to public education that would eliminate English Language Acquisition programs and gut support for students with disabilities. We reject a federal voucher scheme that aims to line the pockets of billionaires, quite literally starving our public school students as we watch free lunch programs slip away. And we wholeheartedly reject ICE terrorizing students on school property and in their communities. We demand that Congress halt the dismantling of public education and instead, focus their attention on fully funding IDEA, protecting students from ICE, and making billionaires pay their fair share.” said Moira Kaleida, National Coalition Director, Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools and the Free the Future Campaign.
“Police-free schools isn’t just a slogan, it’s a demand rooted in what students, families and communities have long told us: true safety comes from community care, not from criminalizing our children. We won’t continue to normalize surveillance and allow young people to be policed in their classrooms and school hallways. We won’t stop organizing until Black and brown students are met with care, not criminalization,” said Leidy Robledo, National Co-Director of Alliance for Educational Justice.
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Advancement Project is a next-generation, multi-racial civil rights organization. Rooted in the great human rights struggles for equality and justice, we exist to fulfill America’s promise of a caring, inclusive and just democracy. We use innovative tools and strategies to strengthen social movements and achieve high impact policy change. Visit www.advancementproject.org to learn more.
We are a co-convener of the National Campaign for Police Free schools, a formation of 20+ youth-led grassroots organizations fighting to end the criminalization of youth in the classroom, create liberatory educational spaces, and implement an affirmative vision of safety and transformative justice.
