National

  • Education

    A Legacy of Young Changemakers

    This month marked a Civil Rights Movement anniversary: the founding of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in April 1960.

    | National
  • Charity

    Children’s Defense Fund’s National Celebration of Joy 2025

    Come ready to be moved, to celebrate with purpose, and to stand in joyful solidarity for the next generation. Because all young people must grow up with dignity, hope, and joy—surrounded by love and supported by a community that believes in them.

    November 5, 2025

    National
  • Conference

    2025 American Youth Policy Forum, Powered by CDF

    This forum will bring together key policymakers, advocates, educators, and CDF staff. Together, we will discuss how national, state, and local policies can better serve young people, particularly those marginalized by systemic inequities

    November 5-6, 2025

    National
  • Transforming the Road

    “A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. On the one hand we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life’s roadside, but that will be only an initial act."

    | National
  • Dark Enough to See the Stars

    The night before he was assassinated, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his prophetic final speech, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,” in Memphis, Tennessee. It was a speech he almost didn’t give.

    | National
  • Education

    For Our Children: Let’s Protect Progress in Education and Child Well-being

    After a March 4 Presidential Address to a Joint Session of Congress, which both commodified and exploited children, on March 11, the Secretary of Education announced a reduction in force cutting the department’s team—responsible for ensuring educational excellence and access for all America’s children—from 4,133 to 2,183 workers.

    | National
  • Revisiting an American Prayer

    As Women’s History Month draws to a close, there’s been one more broad attack on methods of sharing our nation’s history: on March 27, President Donald Trump issued a new executive order affecting the 21 museums and 14 education and research centers that are part of the Smithsonian Institution, including the American Women’s History Museum, which is still years away from breaking ground on its official site, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the National Zoo.

    | National
  • “Everyone Is Welcome”

    An Idaho middle school teacher recently made headlines for refusing to take down a classroom poster she said she was told was “controversial” and “an opinion.”

    | National