Media Coverage

‘Our parents don’t feel like they’re winning’: Oakland families fight for a voice in teachers union contracts

Families had little to no say in [the reopening] process, save that minute of public comment right before a school board vote. “It’s done and there’s no back and forth.”

Oakland Parents Want a Seat at the Table in OUSD Negotiations With Teachers Union

"The pandemic awakened a generation of parents to the awful reality that student outcomes in California, and especially in districts like Oakland, have been poor for decades.”

'People are apoplectic' about this Bay Area school district's mask policies

“They’re essentially bucking federal, state and county guidance, saying, ‘We know better than all of you,” said Megan Bacigalupi, a parent of two children at the district and founder of parent activist group CA Parent Power. “It’s saying there are conditions that persist in Oakland that require a child with speech impediments to be masked, but in Berkeley, that same child can be unmasked.”

Oakland Teachers May Strike Over COVID Safety Concerns

"Whether there are sickouts or strikes, it's incredibly disruptive for parents, especially parents who don't have a luxury to work from home and use school as child care," said Megan Bacigalupi, an Oakland mother.

California student test scores dismal during COVID closures

“We knew once this data was finally released it would be bad,” said Megan Bacigalupi, executive director of CA Parent Power, whose kids attend Oakland schools. “Distance learning set all kids back and widened already big achievement gaps.”

Politics closed American schools last year. Now politics are keeping them open.

All told, Bacigalupi's sons spent a mere 35 hours in a classroom that year. "Parents are just really unwilling to give an inch because we just feel like we were duped, time and again," she said. For parents to now be called unreasonable for opposing "a week or two" of remote schooling feels like "gaslighting," a Virginia parent likewise told me.

Rebecca Bodenheimer Opinion | How School Closures Made Me Question My Progressive Politics

I’ve never felt more alienated from the liberal Democratic circles I usually call home.

Some Democrats Changing Tune on Closing Schools Amid Omicron COVID Surge

"Overwhelmingly, Democratic parents are quite willing to vote for an independent or a Republican in November," said Bacigalupi, who just changed her registration from Democrat to unaffiliated and said she's never voted Republican in her life. "Two years in, it doesn't feel like we are in a place where our worldview won't be shaped by COVID policies."

Megan Bacigalupi Op-ed | California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s actions don’t match his words on dyslexia

“As governor of California, Gavin Newsom has raised the profile of dyslexia, a neurological disorder that affects up to 20% of the population, but he has done very little in the way of policy to make an impact on the lives of students with dyslexia in this state.”

Pat Reilly Op-ed | No Republicans Aren’t Winning Because of Anti-CRT Racism. It’s the school closings, stupid

COVID-19 has changed the politics of public schools across the United States, including California. Democrats need to follow Mayor Breed’s lead: Listen to parents.

Newsom recall fight isn't focused on school closures but anger lingers for some parents

Megan Bacigalupi, an Oakland mother who is executive director of Open Schools CA, a statewide parent advocacy group, said extended school closures turned many parents into “single-issue voters.”

Megan Bacigalupi and Rebecca Bodenheimer Op-ed | California parents need a seat at the education reform table

But while it has never been clearer that public schools must never again be the first places to close and the last to open, the galvanizing of parents as advocates for their children is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to redefine what education reform means in California.

Oakland parents at ‘Schools Not Screens’ rally press to get classrooms reopened

After seven months of watching her kindergartner try to figure out the difference between school and home and her dyslexic second-grader try to learn to read by Zoom, Megan Bacigalupi was moved to action

Parents frustrated by pandemic education launch activist group to raise their voices

“As one of the tens of thousands of California moms who stepped back from the workforce to care for my school-age children, working moms must never be the default option for closed schools,” said Megan Bacigalupi, the founding parent and executive director of the new group. “Parent voices and student interests should never again be ignored or deprioritized as they have been during this year. Parents and kids must have a seat at the table.”

Megan Bacigalupi Op-ed | It’s past time for real school reopening

After more than a year of school closures, the science is clear that the emotional, mental and physical health of our children has declined, and there’s no question it will impact a generation of children.

Bay Area Parents, Students Eager to Know When Schools Will Reopen