'The Job Is Not a Simple One'

By Kelly Allin Butler

Parents for Public Schools is about getting organized. Everyone in the community shares the responsibility for making public schools effective--whether we have children in them or not.

We sometimes kid ourselves into thinking the quality of the schools doesn't affect each of us directly. Yet, the plight of the impoverished and unempowered for whom public schools are the only option is inextricably tied to all of us within the community. Get out of your comfort zone and get to work.

Parents who are organized--as with a Parents for Public Schools chapter--pinch-hit for each other. They share the work and the successes. They provide objective counsel to each other and powerful, cohesive teams to take on problems of the system. By sharing the load,...