Ohio Forum Discusses “Hard Bigotry of High Expectations and Low Resources”

On April 1, education advocates, concerned citizens, and members of the Ohio State University community gathered at the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law to participate in a symposium entitled, “Education for All: Overcoming Poverty & Disparity in American Schools.” The day’s speakers, keynote address, and discussions focused on the huge differences between the education provided to well-off suburban students, most of whom are white, and low-income urban and rural students, many of whom are African-American and Hispanic. The symposium was organized by the student members of the Pro Bono Research Group at the Moritz College of Law and co-sponsored by the College of Social Work, the College of Education, the Council of Student Affairs, and several student groups at the University, including Advocates for Children, the International Law Society, the Public Interest Law Foundation, and the Student Bar Association.

The introductory panel, entitled “Flowers Growing in a Garbage Can,” included Dr. Beverly Gordon of the OSU College of Education, Martha Olson from the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, and Tom McGuire of the Ohio Fair Schools Campaign, and was moderated by Eugene King of the Ohio State Legal Services Program. These speakers emphasized the disparities that are creating the achievement gap between socio- economic and racial groups and emphasized the connection between achievement and the full and fair funding of education programs. A second panel, “Falling Through the Cracks: Special Groups,” focused on the special needs of specific groups of students in achieving a quality education—children with disabilities, rural students, and students with limited English proficiency. The speakers on this panel included the Director of the Ohio Coalition for the Education of Children with Disabilities, Margaret Burley; a professor at Ohio University specializing in rural education issues and board member of the Coalition of Rural and Appalachian Schools, Dr. Aimee Howley; and Sandra Del Valle, education co-chair for the LEP Task Force and associate counsel for the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Both panels provided an excellent overview of the issues involved in ensuring that all students have the opportunity to obtain an adequate education and set the stage for the afternoon’s panel, a discussion of the Ohio school funding litigation DeRolph v. Ohio. This panel featured the lead plaintiffs’ attorney in the case, Nick Pittner, and a key spokesperson for the plaintiffs, William Phillis, the Executive Director of the Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy of School Funding. Lynn Readey, currently Deputy General Counsel for the Ohio State University but formerly a member of the Ohio Attorney General’s office and the lawyer for the state in the DeRolph case, and Paul Marshall, who had served as the Director of the Governor’s Task Force on Financing Student Success, provided the state’s perspective on school funding. Pittner and Phillis expressed frustration at the Ohio courts for declaring that all Ohio students had a constitutional right to a “thorough and efficient” education under Ohio law but then failing to force the state to redo those unconstitutional funding arrangements that had caused the vast disparities in resources available to Ohio schools. Readey and Marshall emphasized the new resources that had been added to the schools since the litigation began, but contended that it was up to the political process to work to improve school financing.

Plaintiffs in the litigation, which has effectively ended, are now turning their energies toward passing a constitutional amendment to the Ohio State Constitution that would force the state legislature to fund the schools based upon need and the actual costs of providing high quality educational opportunities.

The symposium ended with an inspiring speech by Dr. Paul Houston, Executive Director for the American Association of School Administrators. He spoke of what he called the “hard bigotry of high expectations and low resources” created by the No Child Left Behind Act and the state standards movement, and challenged the audience to reverse not only a budgetary deficit but also a deficit of care. For the past 100 years, he said, the primary societal function of schools was sorting students. Now the goal of public education has changed to providing universal proficiency, but nothing else—not the school calendar, the funding mechanisms, nor the manner of organizing schools—have changed to enable schools to meet the new goals. For the new goal to be achieved, schools must be personally engaging and rewarding to each child, and this won’t happen until we as a society begin to work toward our common goals.

The symposium provided an excellent introduction to individuals new to the issue of school equity and financing and gave individuals who had been working in the field the opportunity to share ideas and become reenergized for the continuing struggle.

Prepared by Martha Olson, April 6, 2005