Dear John,

We’re turning 25 – and you’re invited to celebrate with us at AQE’s Champions of Education Gala on October 9 at the DCTV Firehouse in NYC! From the early days of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit to the victory of fully funded Foundation Aid, AQE has grown into New York’s leading voice for education justice. This milestone is a chance to honor the journey, lift up the partners who’ve fueled it, and set the stage for the work still ahead.

Citizen Action of New York (CANY), alongside ACORN, co-founded AQE with the belief that public schools are the cornerstone of justice. Under Karen Scharff’s trailblazing leadership and the strong sequence of leaders that followed – Jess Wisneski, Rosemary Rivera, and now Carolyn Martinez-Class and Rebecca Gerrard – CANY has kept alive the mantra to “win shit, build shit, and change the story.” Their grassroots power-building, guided by leaders committed to connecting everyday struggles with systemic change, has been integral to AQE’s ability to link community voices to statewide victories.

From the dismantling of ACORN, New York Communities for Change (NYCC) emerged in 2010 to carry forward a bold vision of justice for working people. With the leadership of brilliant minds and strategic thinkers, as Jon Kest and Bertha Lewis, ACORN was a core part of AQE’s organizing work in New York City and the success of bringing equity in public schools. Followed by Jonathan Westin, Olivia Leirer, and Lucas Sanchez, NYCC has taken on some of the state’s most urgent fights – from the Fight for $15 to advancing housing justice, climate justice, and racial equity in education. NYCC’s fearless organizing, rooted in the daily struggles of working-class communities, has strengthened AQE’s capacity to win transformative change together.

Make the Road New York (MTRNY), founded in 2007, has been another pillar of AQE’s story. Under the leadership of Ana Maria Archila, Oona Chatterjee, and Andrew Friedman who founded the organization, MTRNY became a core part of AQE to lift up the voices of immigrant families in the fight for education justice. Javier Valdes, Deborah Axt were the next team of leaders who took the organization to the next level, and along with Jose Lopez, Theo Oshiro, Arlenis Morel, and Sienna Fontaine have made MTRNY the state’s largest immigrant membership organization and a powerful voice for education justice. With wins such as the Fund for Excluded Workers ,their work connects immigrant, Latinx, Black, Afro-Caribbean, and working-class families to the fight for racial and economic equity in education. At a time when immigrant rights are under relentless attack, their vision – rooted in dignity, language access, and opportunity for all children – has been critical to building the power and scope of our coalition.