In the wake of Glenn Youngkin’s surprise victory in Virginia – it wasn’t anti-CRT racism that drove most unhappy parents to the polls. In fact, it was the prolonged school closures.

Leaders of OpenSchoolsCA announced Wednesday that they intend to continue their activism through a nonprofit to promote direct parent influence in the state’s highly political education landscape.

The plan is a major shift from the district’s previous offer of hybrid learning for all students, and comes after months of negotiations between the school district and its union.

“This isn’t a breakthrough, it’s a failure,” said Pat Reilly, a Berkeley parent and an advocate with OpenSchoolsCA, in a statement.

Four years of the Trump presidency and the calamity of Covid-19 is driving a political realignment across the United States, and the Golden State is changing too.

Imagine a California summoned to its true greatness with a fully-funded and world class education system. Imagine a state where at every school, every child’s needs are met.

If we want to make real and meaningful impact on students’ lives, we have to be able to explain our motivations, research, and solutions to those very students. We have to be able to communicate clearly with their parents and teachers and community members. And we need to start now.

As California looks back on its first full school year of the Local Control Funding Formula, nonprofits with strong parent engagement, equity in schools and expanded learning have capitalized on interest in the formulas to promote their role in improving education here in California.