Participatory Budgeting in Elementary Schools: You’re Never too Young for Democracy
With the 2017-18 school year just around the corner, it’s time for fresh ideas to improve your local schools. One new model comes from New York City’s Primary School 139, with some special help from Participatory Budgeting Project’s Executive Director Josh Lerner – and his son Miro. P.S.139 is a large Title I public elementary […]
PB for Sustainable Development
Earlier in June, we were invited to attend the UN Public Service Forum in The Hague, Netherlands to do a presentation in the forum’s track dedicated to sharing innovative practices around building inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable cities. Cities are especially tasked with pioneering sustainability measures because 70% of the world’s population will live in […]
How PB in schools tries to make PB a little easier
Thea Crum is the Director of the Neighborhoods Initiative at the Great Cities Institute, University of Illinois at Chicago, and has handled research and evaluation for participatory budgeting (PB) in Chicago, including at Sullivan High School. Michael Menser is a Professor at Brooklyn College, CUNY, and helped bring PB to NYC and his college, and […]
What happens when students lead PB?
Impacts, outcomes, and winning projects shine in Phoenix “Let’s rock and roll!” shouted Christopher Oglesby, Assistant Principal at Carl Hayden Community High School, to a team huddle of 30 spirited students. The group dispersed in all directions, and prepared to welcome over 1,500 student voters to the gym. This team of student leaders—along with school […]
College Students Learn Democracy through PB
All the buzz was around Queens College campus during the Participatory Budgeting 101 workshop. Over 25 students from at least 6 campuses attended and networked over complimentary bagels and coffee. Students were eager in learning how to gain decision-making power over spending $5,000 of the student government budget. The workshop engaged with student interests on […]
Participatory Budgeting for Community Colleges- Palo Alto College in San Antonio
We’re excited to share that Palo Alto College, a community college in San Antonio, is expanding its participatory budgeting process. Representatives from Palo Alto came to our conference in 2013 and were so inspired that they started a PB process for faculty and staff – the first at a community college in the US. This […]
Democratizing Schools with Participatory Budgeting (June 4th Webinar)
WEBINAR: Democratizing Schools with Participatory Budgeting Date: Thursday, June 4, 2015 Time: 11am – 12pm (PST) Download the webinar slides [PDF] Schools and school districts operate large and complex budgets – often with minimal participation from the community members and youth they work to serve. But it doesn’t have to be this way! Join […]
Learning Democracy by Doing – Participatory Budgeting in Schools
With the amount of time students spend in school, nearly 1000 hours per year, it’s surprising how little say they have in their schools’ priorities. What if a school gave its students more choice in their education? What if it gave young people the ability to make collective decisions, while promoting youth leadership and teamwork? […]
How Can PB Work in Schools and School Districts? (Dec. 4th webinar)
Join PBP on Wednesday, 12/4 for a webinar about using participatory budgeting for school and school district budgets. Part of the webinar will discuss California’s new Local Control Funding Formula, but most of the discussion will be relevant for anyone interested in democratizing school spending. Click here to view the presentation slides. ——- Presenters: Josh […]
