First of all, let me just say this. I'll give a dollar to anyone who can explain to me why there's even a debate over whether we ought to provide all children with "minimally adequate" education, and a five dollar bill to anyone who can convince me that the schools in South Carolina are not adequate (if you want to be convinced of this, check out the video released by Bud Ferillo and his group called, the "Corridor of Shame"). But in my mind here's the tough million dollar question that people seem to be much less anxious to address:

Why is "minimally adequate" the rallying cry behind which we're gathering? To be sure, previous state supreme court cases have shown that arguments based on "adequacy" are easier to win than any other kind, but isn't there something to be said about fighting for values we really believe in and that can get people up in arms -- like the fact that all children ought to have access to high quality public education? This was a major topic of conversation at the Rodriguez Symposium two weeks ago, and I think an Atlanta HS student at a Close Up talk Ethan and I had yesterday said it best: if the only downside to fighting for high quality public education as a right is that it will be hard, then we should suck it up and fight the hard fight because it's the right fight. Besides, if we settle for the easy legal fixes aren't we guilty of doing the same thing that we blame lawmakers for all the time (doing the politically expedient thing instead of the difficult but right thing for children)?

Now, don't get me wrong, the lawyers trying the case and the advocates fighting for SC children are doing a tremendous thing, and any advances for students in the state will be welcome ones - and long overdue ones. But even if we win "minimally adequate" schools for all children, do we think that the achievement gap will be bridged, or that all children will be prepared for success in this global economy? Would we really be proud of ourselves as a nation if we somehow met even just a minimally adequate standard in our schools? Perhaps the answer is that we want to move forward in baby steps... and I'm ok with that so long as we keep in mind the end state we seek - a day when all young people have high quality educational opportunity.