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Communications Toolkit: Protect Public Schools

Protect Public Schools
Want to use your voice to protect our students and public schools? We’ve created messaging guidance and communications tools to get you started!
By: National Education Association
Published: February 26, 2025
This toolkit originally appeared on NEA.org

What's in this toolkit

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When We Unite, We Win

Together with parents and allies, we have the power to defeat the effort to dismantle our public schools. We can stop a handful of anti-public education politicians who support an agenda that will have devastating consequences for our students, families, and educators. Our union has stopped attacks on public education before, and we stopped voucher proposals at the ballot box in November. 

This guide is designed to help you spread the word about the movement to protect our students, public schools, and each other, as well as the actions we can take to stand up for students, educators, and our communities. 

Use this guide—and the related, issue-specific guides highlighted on this page—to better reach and mobilize your audiences. 

Messaging Do's & Don'ts

Do
Put faces and names on issues, including sharing the cost for students, educators, and communities when public education and related support are gutted.
Don't
Just share a laundry list of programs and institutions that are at risk.
Because
Many people don’t connect the dots between policies and the impact they have on our students, educators, and communities. Pell Grants, IDEA, and Title I are popular because they help people succeed. When we start with the people and how policies impact them, it is easier to connect our fight to the concrete impact in our own backyards.
Do
Be aspirational. Remind audiences of our values and what we know is possible for our children through public schools.
Don't
Succumb to hopelessness. It’s important to share the news, but we want to ensure we don’t overwhelm people rather than inspiring them to act.
Because
It is easy to feel powerless, but when we unite, we win. These threats have happened before, and we have successfully beaten them back. We are excited to protect public schools so we can realize our shared vision for the future of public education.
Do
Name and place the burden of responsibility on the leaders who must choose to either help or harm public schools when they vote on budgets and policies.
Don't
Forget to name the larger why: Our schools are being targeted to fund another tax cut for billionaires and their friends.
Because
Contextualizing the threats against public education places the burden of responsibility on those in power and delegitimizes billionaires who seek profit over policies that benefit our communities.

Communications Toolkits

Find message guidance, social media graphics, sample campaign copy, and more.
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Speak Out for Public Schools & Students

We are coming together to protect public schools for all students, educators, and communities. Use your voice to talk about the movement and mobilize your audiences.
Access the toolkit
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Push Back Against Executive Overreach

Want to use your voice to ensure our government retains its system of checks and balances? We’ve created messaging guidance and communications tools to get you started!
Access the toolkit
USED

Protect Essential Programs for Students

Stop the push to dismantle the Department of Education and find resources to help educate audiences about its role in our schools.
Access the toolkit
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Protect Undocumented Children’s Right to Access Public Education

All students have a right to enroll in public school, regardless of their immigration status. Use this message guidance and tools to help educators and allies not only defend students’ rights to obtain a public education but to keep them safe from harmful immigration policies.
Access the toolkit Find more immigration resources
Teacher stands in front of classroom and calls on students with raised hands

Protect School Funding

Vouchers take scarce funding away from our neighborhood public schools—where 90% of students go—and give it to private schools that are unaccountable to taxpayers. This guide can help you spread the word about the harmful effect of vouchers on public schools.
Access the toolkit
NCHE President Alec Thomson at public schools rally

Protecting Higher Education

NEA's Higher Ed members—faculty, staff, and graduate employees—know that a healthy and accessible system of higher education is critical to students and communities.
Access the toolkit

Share These Links

We will keep this section updated with important actions and articles for you to share with your community.
Protect Public Schools Rally

Rally to Protect Public Schools and Students

Educators, parents and leaders stand against the Trump administration’s overreach and his nominee for the U.S. Department of Education that threaten public education and the students they serve.
Learn more & share

What's On Your Mind?

We’re here to help. Our community comes to us seeking tools (guides, reports, trainings, and more) to help answer everyday questions. We’re here to support you in whatever you need.

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