Who We Are
LAANE is one of four anchor organizations that make up the Reclaim Our Schools L.A. coalition, along with United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), and Students Deserve. Together, we are fighting to improve access, advance opportunities, and ensure racial justice in public education for all students in Los Angeles.
What We Do
LAANE is working in partnership with UTLA and Reclaim Our Schools L.A. to protect public education from privatization. Our work is centered around Community Schools to support, defend, and strengthen:
- The Black Student Achievement Plan (BSAP)
- Green and climate-resilient schools
- Housing rights for LAUSD students, employees, and their families
- Immigrant rights for LAUSD students, employees, and their families
- Safe learning environments that are free from policing and protect BIPOC and LGBTQ communities
Current Work
Community Schools
The Community Schools model is an incredibly powerful and transformational approach to public education that expounds on student and community strengths to meet student and community needs. There are now 70 Community Schools in LAUSD.
Bargaining for the Common Good
Through our collaboration with UTLA and Reclaim Our Schools L.A., we have expanded the scope of bargaining beyond wages and benefits to win bigger and broader demands that are reflective of our students’, parents’, and communities’ voices.
Immigration
Students, parents, families, and educators are being impacted by attacks on the immigrant community. Now, more than ever, it is important to ensure that our students and their families have the information, resources, and protections to stay safe. Our students, their families, and educators deserve to feel supported and have safe schools.
Black Student Achievement Program
For generations, LAUSD has failed Black students from intentional over-policing and criminalization, to calculated under-investment in Black and Brown schools. In response, Reclaim Our Schools L.A., led by Black student leaders with Students Deserve, joined the Police Free LAUSD Coalition to win a historic divestment in school police in 2020 and the Black Student Achievement Plan in 2021.
Past Accomplishments
2016
The Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE), Students Deserve, and United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) co-founded Reclaim Our Schools L.A. to defend public education.
2017 – Present
Through our coalition, including students, parents, community members and leaders, and school staff, we set to elevate the Community Schools model in LAUSD. In 2017, LAUSD passed a resolution adopting Community Schools. However, even though the District voiced public support for this model, it did not provide a funding plan for it. Our coalition sought to create a sustainable Community Schools model and included common good demands in the 2019 UTLA bargaining platform, winning nearly $14 million in funding for the development of Community Schools and a commitment from LAUSD to create 70 Community Schools by 2023 in the UTLA contract. There are now 70 Community Schools throughout the District.
2019
Strikes revive the “Red for Ed” movement, including UTLA’s six-day strike in January. Through Reclaim Our Schools L.A., LAANE helped shape the 2018-2019 Bargaining for the Common Good platform in UTLA’s contract fight. This led to victories including more nurses, counselors, and librarians in schools; smaller class sizes, funding for the development of Community Schools; reductions in standardized testing; an end to random searches of students in some schools; commitments for more green space on campuses; commitments from LAUSD for regulations on charter schools; among others.
2020 – 2021
Reclaim Our Schools L.A., led by Black student leaders within our anchor organization, Students Deserve, joined with other community organizations to form the Police Free LAUSD Coalition, and won a historic $25 million divestment from LASPD in 2020, and the creation and expansion of the Black Student Achievement Plan (BSAP) in 2021. These victories have been expanded through UTLA’s contract as part of the Bargaining for the Common Good platform, and continue to be part of UTLA’s 2025 Win Our Future platform.
2023
Through our coalition, we joined UTLA in their solidarity strike with SEIU 99, and included Bargaining for the Common Good demands in UTLA’s “Beyond Recovery” platform that resulted in big wins on immigration, housing, greening, BSAP, and more.
Get Involved
Contact our organizer, Alma DJ, through education@laane.org for more information!