Kenwood Oakland Community Organization (KOCO) organizes parents in low-‐income, predominantly Black residents in the Mid-‐South neighborhoods of Chicago to improve the quality of neighborhood schools, change disciplinary policies, and strengthen the legislation empowering local school councils. They train parents with tools to reclaim their sense of power and deepen their racial equity analysis of the issues impacting their lives. KOCO’s efforts to advance an elected school board, stop school closures and privatization, advance equity in public education, and promote local community governance of schools all fly in the face of the moneyed and colored interests who seek to undermine democracy. In 2019, KOCO successfully organized to get the new Mayor of Chicago to refund the city’s 20 sustainable community schools with $50 Million over the next 5 years.
