To preserve, improve and strengthen Denver public schools for students and their families
Fighting for Public Schools
Our Denver Our Schools (ODOS) is a local coalition of Denver parents, teachers, and citizens who believe in the values of fully resourced neighborhood schools.
ODOS was created in April 2016 by a group of concerned parents and citizens who believed the district should invest fully in neighborhood schools to ensure their success. The group members were very concerned about the district’s past decisions to close neighborhood schools and instead open many charter schools across the district. They opposed the national “education reform” policies for many reasons.
Initiated in the early 2000s, these corporate education reform policies focused primarily on metrics and performance rather than on student and educator needs. They were rooted in business principles, based on a free market philosophy, not in the values of public education as public good for all.
Because of these policies, communities have been torn apart, students’ learning and well-being have suffered, and teachers have been devalued.
ODOS Policy Priorities
- Inform the public about the issues related to corporate education reform practices and the impacts of outside influences in local school decision-making.
- Support educators’ rights and professionalism.
- Rethink accountability, assessment, and teacher evaluation.
- Fully resource neighborhood schools.
- Adequate and equitable funding, without public tax dollars used for private profit.
- Promoting community schools.
- Equal access and desegregation.
- Inclusive and comprehensive curriculum.