Popular Comms

05/29/2024

Standing up to right-wing extremists attacking our schools takes courage. Doing it well while keeping yourself and your colleagues safe also takes skill.
Join us tomorrow (Thur, May 30) for a skills-based training to help you respond to heckling, threats, online harassment, and other attacks in a way that gains you the moral high ground and advances the education justice movement.
Register here →

The thought of facing harassment for speaking up at a school board meeting can be scary. This next-level skills training will equip you with concrete plans for safety and strategic response to heckling, threats, online harassment, and other attacks. Importantly, we’ll also explore how these incide...

05/10/2024

At Popular Comms, we are committed to supporting the grassroots movement for public education. In states like Pennsylvania, billionaires and lobbyists have spent decades dividing us against each other while they funnel public funds into private schools. But in communities across the nation, people are coming together to demand fully funded public schools for all children – regardless of zipcode, race, or gender. Earlier this week, over 600 people from communities across Pennsylvania came together in support of PA Schools Work annual Advocacy Day to tell legislators that it is time to fully fund our public schools! Elected leaders in Pennsylvania have a historic opportunity to to ensure that our children have access to inclusive, equitable, and fully-funded schools that equip them for a thriving future.

03/13/2024

Do you want honest, equitable and fully-funded public schools in your community? Are you concerned that while those of us who want this are in the majority - our voices are not being taken into account? Are you concerned about the rising tide of book-bans and attacks on students of color, LGBTQ stud...

03/06/2024

Please join us in welcoming Anna Bakalis into her new role as Executive Director of Popular Comms, and Jonathan Smucker in his new role as Senior Strategist and Board President! We know that to win the big changes we long for, we need more people power. We are committed to our small role in this fight, and as we dig in, we are excited for the roles that Anna Bakalis and Jonathan Smucker will play in leading our team.

Read our full announcement here:
https://www.popularcomms.org/latest/announcing-our-new-executive-director

11/22/2023

Check out what our supporters are saying about our new report, “Public Education is Popular (and Our Opponents know it).”

Julian Vasquez Heilig, Professor of Educational Leadership, Research and Technology and Network for Public Education Founding Board Member says about our new report: “The report presents essential, research-backed strategies aimed at building a diverse majority committed to safeguarding and enhancing public education. Through a thorough understanding and application of these strategies, we can proactively defend our schools against extremist elements and champion a democratic, inclusive vision for the future of public education.”

Check out the report at https://bit.ly/publicedreport.

11/21/2023

Check out what our supporters are saying about our new report, “Public Education is Popular (and Our Opponents know it).”

Jennifer Berkshire, co-author of The Education Wars: A Citizen's Guide and Defense Manual (out in June 2024) and the co-host of the education podcast Have You Heard says about our new report: “This essential guide lays out why our public schools are under such ferocious attack right now, and reminds us that those who seek to dismantle public education represent an extreme minority. Most importantly, it offers effective messaging for defending public schools and pushing back against the forces that seek to divide us. As extremist groups stoke new controversies around race and gender, Popular Comms has provided us with the necessary tools to fight back, making the case for fully-funded schools that serve all kids. Listen to them!”

Check out the report at https://bit.ly/publicedreport.

11/17/2023

Check out what our supporters are saying about our new report, “Public Education is Popular (and Our Opponents know it).”

Bill Fletcher Jr. a long-time racial-justice, labor, and international activist, scholar, and author says: "A powerful, thought-provoking and, in some ways, unsettling study that challenges many of the accepted approaches to fighting authoritarian messaging. This study offers tremendous insight into how to confront authoritarian politics and messaging. What an amazing instrument in the fight to save and expand democracy!"

Check out the report at https://bit.ly/publicedreport.

11/14/2023

Today, we release "Public Education is Popular (and Our Opponents know it)" - a comprehensive, first-of-its-kind research study that tests what messages work best to counter authoritarian attacks on America’s public schools. We think this research provides key insights into why far-right messages are falling flat. We also found in our research that some of the most common messages against these extremist attacks are not working well—and may even be backfiring. The good news is that better-performing messages are available.

Read the full report here!

Public Education is Popular (and Our Opponents Know It) Framing a Big Us to Defeat Authoritarian Attacks on Our Schools Download Report Fall 2023Over the past three years a growing authoritarian movement has targeted public schools, opening up new lines of attack on social wedge issues. We conducted...

08/09/2023

What messages are most effective in defending public education and defeating authoritarianism? Check out our new messaging recommendations!

Read and download the document here:
https://www.popularcomms.org/school-study-messaging-guide

Popular Comms Institute, in partnership with Change Research, conducted a research study with 3,274 respondents across five battleground states (FL, NC, PA, VA, WA) to test which kinds of messages are most effective in defending public education and defeating authoritarian rhetoric.

This document provides top-line messaging recommendations, based on our preliminary interpretation of our research data. You can also watch a video of our briefing (with our co-sponsors at HEAL Together, American Federation of Teachers, People's Action, and Change Research) -- linked from this page: https://www.popularcomms.org/school-study-messaging-guide

Our full report with all of the data and the full messages from the study will be released in the next month. Stay tuned!

Defend Public Education & Defeat Authoritarianism Strategic Messaging Recommendations from a Recent Comprehensive Study. Download August 2023Popular Comms Institute, in partnership with Change Research, conducted a research study with 3,274 respondents across five battleground states (FL, NC, PA, VA...

07/19/2023

Want to support our work? Click here to contribute:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/popularcomms

Popular Comms Institute is a new national nonprofit organization committed to bolstering the work of progressive grassroots organizations, labor unions, and electoral campaigns. Our work comes out of and builds upon game-changing political organizing in Central Pennsylvania, dynamic organizing and communications work in the labor movement, and movement training work.

Our research centers on developing and testing popular messaging and organizing approaches. Our training program orients organizers, campaigners, candidates, and leaders to popular messaging frameworks, while also elaborating the larger populist landscape — including our opponents’ strategies and tactics. We work with our partners to craft resonant messaging, plan strategic campaigns, and mobilize larger bases of support.

While some of our work is funded directly by our organizational partners in exchange for services, we also carry out research, training, and support work for low-budget organizations, movement groups, and individual leaders that is made possible by the generous support of people like you.

Learn more about our work at https://www.popularcomms.org/

Contribute to our work here: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/popularcomms

Show your support with a contribution.

07/05/2023

We're so excited to announce that Anna Bakalis and Cicia Lee have joined our team! Anna is our new Labor Strategy Director. Cicia is our new Training & Partnerships Director.

We’re ecstatic that these two movement veterans are bringing their savvy and expertise in campaign strategy, training, and labor communications to the Popular Comms team!

One year into this venture, we’re excited to announce that we’re doubling our staff capacity, having recently hired Anna Bakalis and Cicia Lee! Both join the Popular Comms staff team in director-level roles.