What Unites Us

our mission

Teachers Unite is an independent member-led organization of New York City public school educators working alongside students and parents to end the school-to-prison pipeline, organize for racial and economic justice, and transform public schools to meet the needs of young people.

our principles of unity

We believe in collaborative leadership and grassroots democracy. We build this democracy through the use of restorative practices in schools, which embodies and models this form of organizing.

We work in alliance with youth and parents to build this democracy in our schools. We use restorative justice to build those alliances.

We are part of a movement to abolish the prison industrial complex (PIC) and challenge “the belief that caging and controlling people makes us safe.” (Critical Resistance)

We resist the PIC by promoting belief in, and practice of, transformative justice as well as advocating for systemic change of how public schools contribute to the PIC.

We see structural racism and capitalism as the core of the problems in public education. We recognize restorative justice as a historical tradition of resistance developed by communities of color – from undocumented immigrants to First Nations. We chose to use restorative justice to honor this tradition and build from this long-standing history.

We believe that the NYC public education system should be democratic and reflect the communities it serves. We see the NYC DOE, and the UFT as being the major systemic institutions at play in our education system.

We believe in popular control of schools. We believe that public schools should be funded entirely by the public, governed by the public and accountable to the public.