As administrators and politicians debate how to reopen schools, parents often have plenty to say but nowhere to say it. While decisions are being made for students around the country, more parents than ever are realizing that they need a more powerful voice in determining what happens in their child’s education. That is why we are pivoting our efforts to capture student voices to a new initiative to put parent voices front and center. 

The Parent Rally will take place on Facebook and seek to capture the challenges of parents and their views, and especially what they want and need now. Here’s how:

• Starting today, Monday, August 10, the Parent Rally will be ongoing on Facebook, to empower parents to voice their concerns about the decisions being made in school reopenings.

• Each week we will offer a prompt in "Discussion" for parents to complete, such as “I never knew until Covid that education was [fill in the blank].” Parents can join the event and share comments about how their family’s education is being impacted.

• To show our gratitude, we will be giving away a new Macbook each week to ONE of the parents who shares their thoughts on education.

• Really meaningful, new and insightful experiences will be the basis for a CER-produced documentary on “Parent Voices in the Pandemic.” 

We are excited to be able to provide a simple but powerful forum that can capture parent voices in real time. Thanks in advance to our friends and colleagues to help us get the word out so that every parent has the power to be heard.

Please share this around and let us know what you think! Don’t forget to tell parents to indicate they are “Going” to the event to participate!

Founded in 1993, the Center for Education Reform (CER) aims to expand educational opportunities that lead to improved economic outcomes for all Americans — particularly our youth — ensuring that the conditions are ripe for innovation, freedom, and flexibility throughout U.S. education.