The Community Alliance for Public Education (CAPE) is a defunct left-of-center education advocacy and organizing project of the Southern Vision Alliance. CAPE supported increased funding for public schools, policies aligned with critical race theory, and decreased reliance on standardized testing.

Background

The Community Alliance for Public Education was founded by education activist and former high school teacher Nicholas Graber-Grace and others in 2015 as a project of the Durham Council of Parent Teacher Associations and Organize 2020, a statewide caucus of left-leaning public-school educators. However, the project was shortly thereafter reorganized under the auspices of the Southern Vision Alliance. ¹

Notably, the Southern Vision Alliance, a 501(c)(3) tax exempt nonprofit organization also based in Durham, North Carolina, often serves as an incubator for left-wing organizing groups, especially ones targeting and regarding youth and minorities. ² The alliance supports Durham Beyond Policing, which advocates for a reduction in the presence of police and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in ethnic minority neighborhoods; as well as Ignite NC (North Carolina), which targets college students in the state and advocates for left-wing positions on policing, LGBT, and education financing issues. ^{3 4}

Advocacy

The Community Alliance for Public Education organized largely through “school-based networks” to build its advocacy teams, which supported policy positions including increasing spending per pupil, decreasing school reliance on standardized testing, and hiring numerous non-educational school staff in support roles (for instance, school counselors, psychologists, social workers, and nurses). Additionally, the organization supported various policies aligned with critical race theory, claiming that racism was an ongoing challenge to communities. For instance, the organization advocated for “anti-racist suspension policies,” and “restorative justice programs.” ⁵

Parents Against Privatization was a “storytelling” campaign of the Community Alliance for Public Education, which supported increased funding for North Carolina public schools, targeting legislators in the North Carolina General Assembly, School Boards, and County Commissions. ⁶

Status

As of December 19, 2022, though the Community Alliance for Public Education is noted on the Southern Vision Alliance’s list of sponsored projects, the domain registration of the alliance’s official website, capenc.org, appears to have expired. In that vein, the last tweet published by the Twitter page of the organization was dated March 26, 2019; and the last Facebook post was September 19, 2020. ^{7 8 9 10 11}

People

Nicholas Graber-Grace is a cofounder and the last listed volunteer executive director of the Community Alliance for Public Education, as well as an organizer for the North Carolina Association of Educators. Previously, Graber-Grace was a teacher at Hillside High School in Durham, North Carolina, for 11 years. ¹²

1. Archived: “About.” Community Alliance for Public Education. January 28, 2022. Accessed December 19, 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220128120601/https://capenc.org/about/
2. “Our History.” Southern Vision Alliance. Accessed December 19, 2022. https://southernvision.org/about/letter-from-the-southern-vision-alliance-our-history/
3. “Ignite NC.” Southern Vision Alliance. Accessed December 19, 2022. https://southernvision.org/ignite-nc/
4. “Sponsored Projects.” Southern Vision Alliance. Accessed December 19, 2022. https://southernvision.org/sponsored-projects/
5. Archived: “About.” Community Alliance for Public Education. January 28, 2022. Accessed December 19, 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220128120601/https://capenc.org/about/
6. Archived: “Parents Against Privatization.” Community Alliance for Public Education. January 28, 2022. Accessed December 19, 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220128104424/https://capenc.org/parents-against-privatization/
7. “CAPE is excited to support…” Twitter: Community Alliance for Public Education (@CAPE4NC). March 26, 2019 (8:07 PM). Accessed December 19, 2022. https://twitter.com/CAPE4NC/status/1110694843431440390
8. “As public school families and staff….” Facebook: Community Alliance for Public Education (cape4nc). September 19, 2020. Accessed December 19, 2022. https://www.facebook.com/cape4nc
9. Homepage. capenc.org. Accessed December 19, 2022.  http://capenc.org/
10. Archived: “About.” Community Alliance for Public Education. January 28, 2022. Accessed December 19, 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220128120601/https://capenc.org/about/
11. “Sponsored Projects.” Southern Vision Alliance. Accessed December 19, 2022. https://southernvision.org/sponsored-projects/
12. Archived: “Staff.” Community Alliance for Public Education. January 28, 2022. Accessed December 19, 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220128122341/https://capenc.org/about/staff/