Georgia Educators for Equity and Justice (GAEEJ) is a membership-based advocacy group that aims to increase the recruitment and retention of Black teachers in the Georgia public school system. ¹ GAEEJ contends that “racial upheaval” is abundantly present in the U.S., endorses critical race theory, and supports the adoption of left-of-center educational policies. GAEEJ advocates for “mandating implicit bias training for all school staff in order to uncover and reduce their biases,” ² and it proposes specific steps for public schools to increase the number of Black staff members such as creating mandatory “culturally responsive curriculums […] around Black history.” ³

GAEEJ has received grants from left-of-center organizations including the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, and the New Schools Venture Fund. ⁴

Membership

Becoming a member of Georgia Educators for Equity and Justice requires individuals to spend time working for the organization. A person who wishes to be a staff member must work a minimum of 20 hours per week, and a volunteer must work at least two hours per week, according to its 2025 standards. GAEEJ stated at the time that members receive training and professional development programs which focus on the latest trends in education such as “diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and social justice.” ⁵ It also offers specialized training courses focusing on civic engagement and self-advocacy.  ⁶

Programs

Education CAFÉ

The Education CAFÉ program is done in conjunction with the Intercultural Development and Research Association (IDRA). ⁷ It works to connect students and their families directly with their local schools to advocate for policy changes through “community-based, disruptive leadership.” ⁸

These policy changes can include school budgets, available courses, and professional development for teachers. In 2011, an Education CAFÉ group in Texas took public action against state legislators for reducing school funding, pressuring them to put more money back in the education budget. ⁹ The IDRA and Georgia Educators for Equity and Justice created a series of seminars, for Georgia Education CAFÉ programs, which cover the effects that anti-critical race theory legislation has on Black educators in Georgia. ⁷

Raise Black Voices Townhalls

GAEEJ Raise Black Voices townhall meetings are for all members of the Georgia education system. The townhalls were started to create “a safe and empowering space for dialogue […] [and] aims to foster authentic advocacy and influence policy changes for a more inclusive and equitable educational system.” ⁷

Seminars

Southern Education Foundation

The President of Georgia Educators for Equity and Justice, Aireane Montgomery, spoke at a professional development seminar for the Southern Education Foundation in which she covered the impact Brown v. Board of Education has on current educations systems. Montgomery specifically addressed the “ruling’s effects on […] disparities in the South, contributing to discussions on racial equality in education.” ¹⁰

Network for Public Education

The Network for Public Education invited the president and vice president of GAEEJ to its 2022 conference. ¹⁰ They spoke about bias in education and proposed that “legislators need to mandate implicit bias training […] for accountability purposes.” ¹¹

African American Dreams Deferred Conference

In 2022, GAEEJ presented at the African American Dreams Deferred Conference on biases and perceptions about Black students. Educators who attended the conference were asked to “confront their own biases through abolitionist teaching methods.” ¹⁰ It used a book by Paulo Freire, a Brazilian Marxist critical theorist who proposed that traditional education is inherently oppressive, to make its case. ¹² They also tasked the attendees with performing a self-audit to check for biases in their classrooms and in their school districts. ¹⁰

1. “Georgia Educators for Equity & Justice.” GAEEJ. Accessed June 9, 2025. https://www.gaeej.org/.
2. ^[1] “About.” GAEEJ. Accessed June 9, 2025. https://www.gaeej.org/about.
3. “About.” GAEEJ. Accessed June 9, 2025. https://www.gaeej.org/about.
4. “Georgia Educators for Equity and Justice.” ProPublica. Accessed June 9, 2025. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/full_text_search?sort=best&form%5B%5D=IRS990ScheduleI&q=863294081&submit=Apply.
5. ^[1] “Membership.” GAEEJ. Accessed June 9, 2025. https://www.gaeej.org/membership.
6. “Membership.” GAEEJ. Accessed June 9, 2025. https://www.gaeej.org/membership.
7. “Our Programs.” GAEEJ. Accessed June 9, 2025. https://www.gaeej.org/programs.
8. “IDRA Education CAFE.” IDRA, 2020. https://www.idra.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/IDRA-Education-CAFE-bilingual-flier-083120.pdf.
9. “Education Cafe.” IDRA, July 12, 2023. https://www.idra.org/families-and-communities/education-cafe/.
10. “Professional Developments.” GAEEJ. Accessed June 9, 2025. https://www.gaeej.org/professional-developments.
11. “Conference Schedule.” Network For Public Education, 2022. https://networkforpubliceducation.org/conference-schedule/.
12. Harris, Darriel  B, and Debra  L Roter. “Profound Love and Dialogue: Paulo Freire and Liberation Education.” Health literacy research and practice, July 2024. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11230641/#:~:text=Freire%20argued%20that%20traditional%20educational,was%20liberating%20and%20required%20dialogue.