Good Trouble turns to youth to improve student motivation in Minnesota schools

NINA MOINI: A group of youth in the Twin Cities are turning to each other to build the education system they want. The organization is called Good Trouble. And it's increasing student motivation by pushing schools, districts, and policymakers to listen to students. And they just held their first State of the Youth event. Joining me to share more about the event and the organization is one of its cofounders of Good Trouble, Jose Perez. Thank you so much for being with us, Jose.

JOSE PEREZ: Thanks so much for having me.

NINA MOINI: So, Jose, you are 24 years old now. You've been through a lot of things. Tell me what brought you to this point where you wanted to help be one of the founders of this organization, Good Trouble, and what it's all about.

JOSE PEREZ: Well, thanks so much. And a huge thanks to the MPR team. You guys are the real deal, just really being able to make sure that we're pushing the right type of trouble out here.

I've been a lifelong troublemaker. That's how I've become the chief troublemaker and leading this movement, alongside my cofounder, Julian. We're carrying the legacy of John Lewis and making the necessary trouble to make schools actually be more engaging and motivating than negative cycles, like streets and screens.

And we understand that young people are closest to the issues and most self-interested to fix these issues. So we know that we're not a part of the problem. We're a part of the solution. We need each other to be able to pull not only Minnesota but America out of this deep trouble that we're facing.

NINA MOINI: Yeah, the late Congressman John Lewis used that phrase, and others did too, in the Civil Rights movement-- good trouble, the idea that you just-- you want to disrupt the status quo but in a good and healthy and positive way. So what does that mean to you? And why did you select it for the organization?

JOSE PEREZ: Right? Well, what it means to me is-- making good trouble looks like facing injustice, no matter the cost, and crossing the bridge, understanding what's on the other side of that bridge. About, yep, 60 years ago, in this very month-- we're still in March-- the March on Selma happened, Bloody Sunday.

And those young organizers understood what was on the other side of that bridge. And we are here able to make good trouble because we stand on their shoulders. So we see education being the key opportunity, the interconnecting thing to all of our families.

And we need it to develop our young people, because education is a safeguard to democracy. And we need everyone to give their greatest, unique gifts to this movement and to ensure that we have America for another 250 years to come.

NINA MOINI: So what were some of the topics, Jose, at the State of the Youth, your first event there? What types of things are you zeroing in on to actually help these policymakers and educators to better be able to help students?

JOSE PEREZ: So a key solution that we're pushing is embedding youth voice into school improvement. That was a key thing that Good Trouble is focused in on and also where we invited all of our young troublemakers and allies at that event.

And all of our friends at MPR and listening, on May 7, we're launching the Youth Saving Learning campaign, where we're going to dive in more in depth on how we can actually center youth voice rather than just have it a part of the conversation and start actually collecting the stories and lived experiences of these young people and collecting a shared understanding behind it across sectors, across community, and actually going straight to the table, because when young people aren't at the table, they're on the menu.

So we're ready to roll up our sleeves and to do this with our caring adults because we know we need each other to get this across the finish line.

NINA MOINI: So like I mentioned, you're 24 now. But you're not so far removed that you can't relate to what some of these teens and kids and youth are going through. Looking back on your own journey, how would something like this have helped you? What did you feel like you were missing in your experience?

JOSE PEREZ: That's a great question. Young people, it's instinctive for them to want to belong, to want a sense of real work, and to feel purpose in their life. And that's how we make school culture outcompete gang culture, is by making schools meet those youth developmental needs before a gang culture and before social media does.

And as first generation, my experience is not necessarily a unique one. I'm an English language learner. I am son of a single mother English language learner that was dyslexic and failed the first grade, failed the ninth grade, didn't do too well in between.

I even have justice system experience, and not the internship kind, the big boy kind, where I decided to turn my pain into something powerful. And my mother sacrificed everything she even had to come to this country because she never had the chance to step in a classroom. So now what Julian and I are doing is dedicating our American dream, our personal journeys, and our unique gifts to ensuring that every young person, especially every troublemaker, has the opportunity to give their unique gift, because we the public are so desperately in need of each and every gift.

NINA MOINI: And Julian is your cofounder, correct?

JOSE PEREZ: Yes, and our movement lead. He's our Northsider.

NINA MOINI: So I understand that you also are piloting this kind of toolkit with some of the local high schools. Can you tell me a little bit about that?

JOSE PEREZ: Absolutely. So like I mentioned, Julian, he is our Northsider. Our home base is the north side of Minneapolis, where a lot of our troublemakers live, where my cofounder stays, and where three of our high-school partners reside. We are partnered with the District of Minneapolis. And we also partner with Shakopee, with their high school, where we're actually not just talking about it but being about embedding youth voice at the core of school improvement, and working with these troublemakers to actually build a shared understanding and mindset from our findings, and working together with the school leaders, with community leaders, and with policy leaders to make schools engaging and motivating, because we're counting on this generation of leaders to pull our trouble into something good. And we need to start acting swiftly and audaciously.

NINA MOINI: And so when you think back to your own experience and what I'm sure a lot of other kids like you were talking about experience today, it feels like you make mistakes when you're young and you're a kid. Did you then feel like there weren't really avenues for you to get back to where you needed to be or on the so-called right path? Is that where you feel like the disconnect happens for a lot of people who are in not doing good trouble yet but still doing the other kind?

JOSE PEREZ: Right, absolutely. Well, I think, yeah. I think there's competing interests right now in the world. Not a lot of it is positive. And we need schools to be able to step in and build on the interest and build on the assets of our young people and to engage them before social media or streets do.

So I do believe that we need more caring adults to reach our young people. We need more mentors. And we need more opportunities for young people to expand their horizons because there's narratives shoved down young people's throats.

And they think that, oh, they are a troublemaker and that their story is written for them. And at Good Trouble, we're reclaiming what it means to be a troublemaker. And we're reclaiming what education needs to look like and do.

And so I do think we need more audacious ways to reach our young people, because things like gang culture are even more audacious. And they rely on our young people. And we the public rely on our young people even more. So we have to act as if that's the truth.

NINA MOINI: And so you mentioned you have this toolkit that you're about to launch. You've got this public report coming out in May. Generally, though, what's next for this group? And how could adults or other people get involved if they wanted to be helpful?

JOSE PEREZ: Great question. So what's next is there's a lot more work ahead of us than behind. We have to build a shared understanding to the public of Minnesota that, one, young people are not the problem. We are a key part of the solution.

That, two, every individual has a unique gift to give. And that, three, we need to put aces in places. And we need to put folks where their unique gifts thrive. And so not only is it behind-- not only is it building a mindset and a movement behind this audacious vision to make schools reach our young people before anything else can. But it's also proving the model and demonstrating that young people can make change.

I was a part of the historic team at Bridge Makers, where it was young people that got $30 million worth of unemployment benefits to young people's pockets during the pandemic, where it was young people that shaped and shepherd bipartisan legislation in partnership with caring adults. And I understand that Minnesota, we're the North Star of the superpower of the world.

So forgive me for being bold and audacious, but I understand that Minnesota has never asked for permission to lead. And we have always answered the call when the country needed leadership. And this is a key time where we need to answer that call. So I encourage folks to reach out to our socials, to stay engaged.

We host community forums, policy forums, youth justice forums. We forum it up. We connect. We build. We build the space so we can build that shared understanding. And we can also understand that we are serving the same young people. And if we can make sure that troublemakers are engaged, that supports every young person.

NINA MOINI: Wow, Jose, thank you so much for your work and for stopping by. You really inspired me. Take care of yourself.

JOSE PEREZ: It's my pleasure. Thanks for turning trouble into something good.

NINA MOINI: was Jose Perez, cofounder of the youth-led organization Good Trouble.