Restorative Practices

The Racine Community Coalition for Public Education is working with the Racine Unified School District (RUSD) to improve restorative practices across the school district. Restorative practices in schools are strategies that use the underlying principles of restorative justice instead of traditional punishment measures. They represent a positive step forward in helping all students—from elementary school through middle school and high school—learn how to navigate conflict resolution, take ownership of their behavior, and practice empathy, perspective-taking, and forgiveness.

The Coalition is  interested in assuring that effective restorative practices are in place in RUSD because such practices are essential for students to access and succeed in high quality learning environments. Districts such as the Madison Metropolitan School District, Los Angeles Unified School District, and Pittsburgh Public Schools are implementing models that significantly reduce the negative consequences of out-of-school suspensions by consistently and comprehensively implementing restorative justice practices. We believe RUSD and the community can learn from these models and create a district-wide culture of restorative justice practice that would have similar positive outcomes.

Public Tax Dollars for Public Schools

The Racine Community Coalition for Public Education works to educate the community on the need for public tax dollars to be used to fund public schools. This work emphasizes the harmful effects of private school vouchers on public education.

The Coalition believes that because most students who use vouchers were already attending private schools, vouchers amount to a tax subsidy that benefits existing private school families and a tax bailout for private schools that might otherwise go under. While private and religious schools have every right to exist – and parents have a right to make the choice to send their children there – they should not be propped up at the expense of the general taxpayer. Further, the students sent back to public schools by private voucher schools often experience learning difficulties that persist for years.

Strong communities need strong public schools. The use of public tax dollars to fund public schools is one way to assure this happens.