NH Latino News: Sarah Robinson
NH Latino News
By Annabel Rocha August 12, 2022
This week we spoke with Sarah Robinson, the Education Justice Coordinator of Granite State Progress. Granite State Progress works to engage citizens around issues that are of immediate state or local concern.
“What I’ve always valued about this organization is that it finds the things that matter to local progressive communities and helps to shine a light in the places where a little boost is needed,” said Robinson, who says that reproductive rights, abortion access, education justice, and gun violence are the group’s top issues at the moment.
Through Granite State Progress’ collaboration with other local groups, they found that some advocacy for public education was needed, especially given all of the changes brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’re also focusing on keeping classrooms healthy. We had a real push against mask mandates in school boards this year, so we wanted to make sure that folks and communities had all of the information they needed to understand why having all the tools in your toolbox, including masking, was important to keep healthy classrooms,” she explained.
Robinson shared her concerns with people in power attempting to redistribute funds from public education and transfer them towards private and homeschooling, which she says takes resources away from the majority of New Hampshire’s students who attend public schools.
She also explained that specific concerns she has for public education come from outside parties stating that she’s always trusted that people in her community and elected officials had her children’s best interest at heart but that the pandemic highlighted the intensity of right-wing extremism infiltrated in local school boards. According to Robinson, often times these people are not even parents or community members and only travel to these events with the intention of spreading misinformation.
Robinson remains hopeful that building community and collaboration is the key to continuing to advocate for a fair and healthy education system.
“We get across the finish line together. We succeed when we build community on a micro and a macro level,” she said.
Resources:
NH Latino News: https://nhlatinonews.com/nhln-opinion-sarah-robinson%EF%BF%BC/
Granite State Progress: https://granitestateprogress.org
Granite State Progress on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/granitestateprogress
New Hampshire Latino News Opinion+: Josie Pinto, The Reproductive Freedom Fund of New Hampshire: https://nhlatinonews.com/nhln-opinion-josie-pinto/
Showing Up For Racial Justice (SURJ): https://surj.org
Concord NH SURJ: https://www.facebook.com/ConcordNHSURJ
“What I’ve always valued about this organization is that it finds the things that matter to local progressive communities and helps to shine a light in the places where a little boost is needed."
Watch the interview here.
Read about the interview here.