Thoughts on Rodriguez; A Few Student Observations
As I first blogged about a couple weeks ago, last Thursday and Friday marked a *potentially* important occasion for the notion of quality education as a right of all children in America. We were honored to be invited to the "Rethinking Rodriguez" symposium hosted by Boalt Hall law school in Berkeley, CA, where a host of leaders and legends in education reform and school finance lawsuits gathered to discuss the possibilities of ensuring education as a right through a variety of legal and legislative strategies at the state and federal levels.
There were, of course, no easy solutions or epiphanies when it came down to decide next steps. But the good news was this: the sense of urgency among the lawyers present at the conference was matched by a realization that their litigation will have to work in tandem with social movement building and the voices of students, parents, and ordinary citizens if change is truly to occur. In other words, I got the sense that there is an increasing recognition from the "experts" that teamwork with "non-experts" like students themselves, their parents & others is necessary to create pressure on politicians to pay attention to kids and schools. Lawsuits will inevitably be a part of the fight to ensure access to quality educational opportunity across this great country, but they'll be much more palatable when the public is convinced that the goals of the lawsuit are worthwhile -- something that I suspect students can persuade people to believe.
I'll continue to provide some updates on how the community of legal minds is approaching these educational justice issues, and at the same time communicate what you, as students, want them to know. With that in mind, here are a couple of choice comments that recent petition signers have been making:
Aaron Salituro, a high school student in Connecticut: "Education, public or privately funded, is perhaps the most important investment any group of people can make. High quality education is not only practical because it guarantees an effective future workforce, but is also moral and compassionate as it enriches every aspect of one's life, yound or old, teaching values, ideas, and skills that can better a people and the world as a whole."
Kristen Crawford, now a college student in Ohio: "My high school did not prepare me for college. I went to a public, rural elementary school and high school, and I was not given the best education I could get. I was too poor to go to a private school, and I believe that someone with the talent should not be held back by a substandard school."
Philip Howe, a college student in Oregon: "Thomas Jefferson agreed that the foundation for a strong, stable, and successful democracy was an educated population. I would like to see this idea extended to the US Constitution. Only education will keep this country strong through the 21st century."