Kendra Brooks for Philadelphia City Council
Parent organizer Kendra Brooks has earned NPE Action’s enthusiastic endorsement in her campaign for an at-large seat on the Philadelphia City Council.
Kendra is trained as an educator and facilitator in restorative practices, with a specialization in family and parent engagement. She has also been a leader in Parents United for Public Education, ACTION United and the Journey for Justice Alliance, as well as the former president of the Steel School School Advisory Council. Most recently she served on the Mayor’s nominating committee for the Board of Education.
Kendra has been on the front lines of school closures in the city, and told us that the “history of Philadelphia’s school closures is intensely traumatic. School closures have meant the decimation of neighborhood communities where school was the central hub.”
In 2014, the last public school left in Kendra’s neighborhood was slated to be taken over by Mastery Charter Schools. Kendra helped organize hundreds of parents and educators to give them a voice. They pushed for a vote, and for the first time in Pennsylvania, in a low voter turnout area, parents voted overwhelmingly to reject Mastery.
Since that victory, Kendra went on to work with parent and school communities all across Philadelphia.
As a candidate for the City Council, her priorities are “a charter school moratorium, pushing for a democratically elected school board and requiring a 10-year plan for rehabbing all of our school buildings so that they aren’t filled with lead and asbestos.”
She is committed to finding local money for Philadelphia’s schools, while she continues to push for equity in funding at the state level.
Philadelphia voters shouldn’t miss this opportunity to elect a candidate committed to ensuring that every neighborhood has a quality public school. Please be sure to vote for Kendra on November 5th.