Today, I join 500 business and nonprofit leaders to call for every student in every school to have the opportunity to learn computer science as a basic part of education. I encourage other leaders to sign too, to better prepare our children for the future.

If people continue to stand up against these attacks, we can defeat this destructive push to privatize education, and instead strengthen our public schools’ ability to help all our children succeed, and create a better future for us all.

Thankfully, parents, guardians, caregivers and the public strongly support public schools, and there is encouraging opposition to this drive to undermine public education

If people of conscience stay on the sidelines, Christopher Rufo and other extremists could well succeed in their drive to weaken public education, undermine our democracy and further erode America’s middle class.

and by better equipping schools to teach critical thinking skills and address spiraling rates of youth depression, anxiety, and suicide

by increasing access to AP classes and career technical education pathways

by addressing shortages of teachers, nurses and guidance counselors

by expanding pre-k

In the wake of the worst pandemic in a century, instead of attacking public education and harming students, policymakers should be focusing on how to strengthen public education and support students’ success and well-being...

Then extremist state politicians champion cookie-cutter bills provided by those same national voucher backers to “solve” the manufactured “outrage,” often under the banner of “parents’ rights.” But we are taking a stand against them.

Then they spread the falsehoods on social media and via Fox News and the click-driven, controversy-obsessed mainstream media

They concoct lies, smears and distortions that stoke fear and anger, such as that eight-year-old white students are being taught to hate themselves because they are responsible for slavery, and that kindergarten teachers are grooming five-year-olds.

Here's culture war orchestrator Christopher Rufo in his own words detailing the strategy for replacing public education with a universal voucher system: “To get to universal school choice, you really need to operate from a premise of universal public school distrust...”

Extremists follow a consistent playbook for attacking public schools

Supporters of public schools see these ugly attacks for what they are, and we are taking a stand against them. Read my op-ed with @rweingarten in Time.

Just as extremists have used the Big Lie about the 2020 presidential election to undermine American democracy, far-right advocates of privatizing public education are using Big Lies to undermine public schools.

As @DrDanaSuskind writes, “parents cannot afford to sit idly by” while a once-in-a-lifetime investment in children hangs in the balance. It’s time to unite for the best interests of our kids.

Stand is passionately committed to seizing this opportunity to achieve lasting positive changes for children, for families, and for society as a whole. We know you are, too, and look forward to standing strong together in the crucial weeks and months ahead.

Stand's 25th anniversary comes at a time of unique possibility to make progress toward racial & social justice. We may never have a better chance to reduce child poverty, increase economic mobility, root out individual and systemic racism & close our nation’s racial wealth chasm

What began 25 years ago today as an historic rally has become @Stand4Children, a bold and vital organization impacting the education and lives of children furthest from justice across the nation.