School Participatory Budgeting: Civic Collaboration and Innovation

Participants will learn about one of the newest civic education innovations: School Participatory Budgeting. Participants will be provided implementation information and findings from ongoing research on how this initiative creates authentic collaborative, equitable, and innovative democratic learning opportunities for students and school communities.

Tara Bartlett is a doctoral student in Arizona State University’s Educational Policy and Evaluation program, researching youth participatory governance, community development, and civics education. Tara draws upon her 14 years of teaching in Title I middle schools, and observing outcomes of civic programs within her classroom, to reimagine how schools can integrate participatory governance opportunities for youth and families and better equip youth with the knowledge, attitudes, skills, and practices to become political and civic changemakers within their own communities. tbartlet@asu.edu

Madison Rock is passionate about guiding young people through processes of self-empowerment and developing strong, resilient communities. As the Civic Health Program Coordinator at the Center for the Future of Arizona, she supports strategies and initiatives to improve Arizona’s civic health, including school participatory budgeting (SPB) where students “learn democracy by doing” by making decisions over a portion of the district’s budget. She has been deeply engaged with SPB model since its early adoption and has helped seed and support SPB processes in the United States and internationally. madison.rock@arizonafuture.org