Public School Defenders Hub a program of Contemporary Policies Institute

The mission of Contemporary Policies Institute is to advocate for and defend public education, ensuring accountability and access to safe, inclusive, secular, quality learning for all children. We urgently counter false narratives and anti-public education attacks by leveraging the power of coalition action.

The Public School Defenders Hub was organized under Contemporary Policies Institute public benefit non-profit in April 2023.

We proactively reduce the proliferation and detrimental impacts of anti-public school forces. Our free, easy-to-access online Resource Library hot topic articles and Talking Points are supporting education community advocates. Dozens of visitors have downloaded resources to prepare public comments, Op-Eds, and content for social media. Lawyer-authored in person and virtual school board Monitors & Observes Training is delivered to volunteers. Hot education equity provisions of state Education Code and also Brown Act public meeting conduct requirements are covered in our 2hour training. More than 200 volunteers have completed our trainings.

District-level community organizers are linked to our encrypted text messaging platform for requesting and receiving emergent advocacy support. An average of 50+ messages are exchanged monthly on topics like resource referral, turnout for key events, threats and strategies.

Many thousands of social media impressions were generated by our counter-disinformation and enforcement focus messaging campaigns. We are on Instagram and Facebook. In addition to inbound posts, we also amplify our coalition partners social media on a daily basis by commenting and reposting for expanding reach. #publicschoolsmatter.

Our Spring and Fall 2024-25 Coalition Summit events were each attended by over 50 education community leaders each. Participants valued interactive programs and updates from our Defenders Hub. The events provide unique opportunity for partners and supporters to collaborate with one another. Our Fall 2025 Coalition PartnersSummit will be held on Monday, October 6th from 1-4:00pm in Santa Ana, CA.

Our work requires considerable human resources to conduct the operational activities necessary to drive our impact and defend public schools. We function as a coalition with other like-minded county, regional, and state level groups. There is a significant need to expand through staff and space capacity-building and for seeding other affiliated Hubs to have local impact and increase coalition advocacy impacts.

Our statewide advocacy includes affiliate groups in Southern California and Placer County. We impact other regions as well due to our advocacy actions and education activities.

The Contemporary Policies Institute operates under the principle that society, in general, and public education, specifically, must function based on a factual framework of salient issues. We strive to identify and communicate the facts that contribute to the making of effective, fair, and inclusive policies. We believe that public education is a key foundation of a democratic society.

The Public School Defenders Hub program serves public education through coalition communication and engagement. We fill a previously unmet gap by bringing leadership of like-minded groups together for the purpose of educating our community and proactively reducing the detrimental impacts of anti-public school forces on students, teachers, families and local communities.