The Rose Revival Campaign, a grassroots initiative led by the Kentucky Student Voice Team, is holding a community forum in Owensboro as part of a statewide series of public conversations about the state of Kentucky schools.
The forum will be held on June 8 from 1:30-3:45 p.m. at the Owensboro Convention Center.
“The Rose Revival Campaign emerged in response to the pressing need for active engagement with the principles upheld in Kentucky’s landmark 1989 Rose v. Council for Better Education decision,” a release from the Kentucky Student Voice Team (KSVT) reads. “The campaign comprises a series of statewide community forums and additional research to foster awareness, dialogue, and actionable strategies to ensure Kentucky students’ constitutional rights to an adequate and equitable education.”
Will Powers, KSVT policy and public engagement coordinator, said the need for a wholesale review of education led by Kentucky’s stakeholders could not be more appropriate or pressing.
“Who better than students, families, and teachers to lead the inquiry about whether Kentucky is meeting its constitutional promise to prepare our young people for an ever changing world?” Powers asked.
Previous forums have led to reflections published on KSVT’s website as “post-forum memos,” summarizing key points and highlighting individual community voices.
“They also have surfaced themes around the inadequacy of civic and political education in schools, the lack of mental health resources available to educators and students, and the growing funding divide between Kentucky’s wealthy and poorer districts, among others,” the release says.
Ai Ta, an Owensboro Independent high school student and a KSVT co-facilitator, said the upcoming forum provides students, educators, and families a unique opportunity to engage in meaningful conversations about their education.
“Our state has a storied history of some amazing education innovations. But we need the public to join us in writing the next chapter,” she said in the release. “Students, parents, and educators are among the most important people who can help us keep the public in Kentucky’s public schools.”
Members of the public are invited to attend the Rose Revival forum in Owensboro and can RSVP here.
According to their release, the KSVT is “an independent youth-led, intergenerationally-sustained nonprofit dedicated to co-creating more just, democratic Kentucky schools and communities through education research, policy, and storytelling.”
Learn more about KSVT or the forum at ksvt.org.
