Historic Moment: A statement from CIS President Rey Saldaña

Communities In Schools National President & CEO Rey Saldaña issued the following statement today regarding the election outcome:

"The American people have spoken. While the final election outcome took several days to determine, we can now be sure that every voice was heard during this record turnout election. We congratulate President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. In a powerful moment for every young woman in the Communities In Schools ® (CIS ™) network, Kamala Harris becomes the first woman, as well as the first person of African American and Indian/Asian descent to hold the office of vice president.

 Now that the election is over, it’s time for our country to come together. We must support the president-elect’s plans for the peaceful transition of power so that we can begin to face the uncertain economic conditions in our country caused by the pandemic. And we must heal the deep social divisions in our country that have been exposed by the troubling rise of racism and xenophobia.  

 But we must not neglect the existing faults in our public institutions, including education, that have allowed our country’s most vulnerable children and their family to suffer the most during this unprecedented time. We will be working with the new administration on the educational priorities identified by Communities In Schools (some of which were incorporated into the Biden-Harris platform). Those include:    

- Substantially increasing funding for Title 1 Schools.  

- Passing The Communities Serving School Act of 2020, which would provide grants to state and local education agencies to invest in wraparound school services that assist with the health, wellbeing, and stability of students outside of the classroom.  

- Ensuring that every high poverty school has the resources they need to staff an onsite coordinator who can implement integrated student supports.   

Communities In Schools is committed to a U.S. education system where every student receives the integrated student supports they need to achieve in school and life, regardless of race, zip-code, and historical marginalization. We look forward to working with President-elect Biden and his administration to help realize that ambition."