Our children's success should not depend on luck or exceptional resilience. Instead, it should depend on school systems that build bridges to a successful future, writes NSBA Executive Director and CEO Verjeana McCotter-Jacobs. NSBA's new national initiative — Stand Up 4 Public Schools — will help our members elevate their work to build those bridges and, in doing so, protect our nation's future.
July 20, 2026
Every single day, school board members move mountains for children you may never even meet. You do it in the face of dwindling budgets, shifting policies, and a society that sometimes forgets the sheer magnitude of the responsibility you carry.
I know the weight of that seat. I sat in it for over a decade in Prince George's County in Maryland. I know the courage it takes to lead when the world is watching—and when it feels like no one is listening.
People see the "Esquire" after my name or the Lieutenant Colonel on my resume, and they see a finished product. But my "why" didn't start in a courtroom or a boardroom.
It started in rural North Carolina, in one of the poorest corners of this country. I grew up in a place where opportunity wasn't just scarce—it was invisible. I wasn't the student who had a 'movie-moment' teacher who stepped in and changed everything. I didn't have a system designed to ensure a girl like me made it out.
I made it out because of a stubborn, God-given resilience and a family that refused to let me be a product of my circumstances. But beating the odds through sheer will shouldn't be the only way a child gets a future.
A child's success shouldn't depend on being exceptionally lucky or exceptionally tough. It should depend on a school system that builds bridges to a successful future. But let's be honest: Building those bridges is getting harder.
Lately, it feels like our public schools have become a political battlefield for adult grievances. But here is what the critics forget: Our public schools are the last true common ground in our democracy. They are the only place left where children from every walk of life sit side by side to learn how to be successful citizens. When people come after our schools, they aren't just attacking a building—they are attacking the very foundation of our communities.
Many of you have come to me over the past year and said, "Verjeana, I'm tired of watching the narrative of our hard work be rewritten by people who have never stepped foot in our classrooms."
Your national association is not just watching from the sidelines. We are launching our latest national initiative: the Stand Up 4 Public Schools campaign.
Far more than a slogan, it is a strategic framework that will undergird everything that NSBA does, from federal and legal advocacy to member services and communications.
We seek to reclaim the narrative of public education and give you the tools, the data, and the voice to stand tall in your communities and say: Public education is the promise of America, and we are its proudest defenders.
I look at the millions of children in our districts today, and I see versions of that girl from North Carolina. I know there are kids sitting in classrooms right now, waiting—not for a miracle, but for a system that sees them.
Our kids are navigating a world of AI, social media, and complex mental health crises. They don't need us to be a whipping post; they need us to be a bridge. They need board members who are willing to stand in the gap and say: "In this district, we build the path that carries you there."
When we 'Stand Up 4 Public Schools,' we are protecting the future of our nation.
It's time to stop apologizing for our excellence. It's time to stop whispering our successes.
It is time to rise up for our students. Rise up for our communities. And rise up for the promise of America.
To learn more about the Stand Up campaign and donate to support its work on behalf of school boards and public schools, visit nsba.org/donate.
Verjeana McCotter-Jacobs, Esq. (ceo@nsba.org) is NSBA’s executive director and CEO and the publisher of American School Board Journal.