• By Isabelle Philip • IDRA Newsletter • June – July 2025 •

Students are natural experts on education policy, as they are the members of our society most directly impacted by these laws. We saw that again first-hand in the last few months.

During Georgia’s 2025 legislative session, IDRA worked with over 30 students from two Georgia public high schools to share their personal experiences with public education at the state Capitol.

In the fall, IDRA led biweekly learning sessions at their schools. We covered foundational knowledge, including the levels of government, the connection between education policy and the classroom, and organizing strategies, such as power mapping.

“Finding out that the Capitol doors are open to anybody was a shocker to me. I’d walked past it once or twice in my life, and going in and realizing that the only thing stopping me was a security check, that was really shocking to me. Knowing that I could be included, that I could be in those spaces really made me feel empowered.”

– Devin, East Atlanta student

[l-r] Isabelle Philip; DeAndrea Byrd; student; Mikayla
Arciaga, M.A.Ed.; students (students unnamed
for privacy)

We helped students look at data, analyze bills and discuss their implications, which led to deep conversations about how certain students, e.g., Black or disabled students, are disproportionately impacted by the same harmful legislation, especially school discipline legislation.

Once the legislative session began in January, IDRA brought students to the Capitol to work with us while they gained hands-on experience to cap off the knowledge they had been building.

We would meet up bright and early at 8:00 AM and review the bills that would be considered during the session that day. Students scoured the list to highlight any items that touched the education space to determine our focus for the day.

Then, we gave the students copies of the bills to read, analyze and discuss. Depending on where key bills were in the cycle, we supported the students in preparing for testimony, speaking with their legislators in person, or observing the proceedings on the floor.

Each day was different. But what stayed the same was that on the days students joined us at the Capitol, the weight of our work felt lighter. They lit up an often difficult environment with laughter, photoshoots and lunch conversations. There also were hard moments, such as seeing students’ disillusionment with the way some of our elected officials operate.

Mikayla Arciaga, M.A.Ed. (left) with students (unnamed for privacy) at the Georgia capitol

During our final meeting with the students, they shared reflections. Sixteen-year-old student Devin from East Atlanta, said: “The most powerful thing I learned during this program is that there are people who are actively trying to change the world. Me and my peers have been conditioned to think that there’s not much you can do about your environment. Actively engaging has allowed me to believe that there’s something beating the odds against our situation. It gave me a lot of hope about the crazy stuff I see in the world.

“Especially for someone like me who had no real exposure to politics at a young age, finding out that the Capitol doors are open to anybody was a shocker to me. I’d walked past it once or twice in my life, and going in and realizing that the only thing stopping me was a security check, that was really shocking to me. Knowing that I could be included, that I could be in those spaces really made me feel empowered.”

Next year, IDRA plans to seek support to expand this program, with a particular focus on under-resourced schools. We believe that every student deserves to be invested in and supported in making change, and through our Civic Changemakers program, we plan to do just that.

Isabelle Philip is an IDRA Education Policy Fellow. Comments and questions may be directed to her via email at contact@idra.org.

[© 2025, IDRA. This article originally appeared in the June-July edition of the IDRA Newsletter. Permission to reproduce this article is granted provided the article is reprinted in its entirety and proper credit is given to IDRA and the author.]

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