California Symposium Proposes Quality Education
as a Fundamental Right
On April 27-28, 2006, the Warren Institute on Race,
Ethnicity and Diversity at the University of California,
Berkeley, School of Law convened a symposium of over
100 social science and legal scholars to address “Rethinking
Rodriguez: Education as a Fundamental Right.”
At the symposium, speakers presented papers on empirical
research, legal theory, public policy design, and grassroots
mobilization that laid out some aspects of the current
status of education rights and the results of advocacy
efforts. Symposium presenters and discussants also began
to examine possible strategies for creating a new paradigm
of education as a fundamental right.
Engaging the Grassroots
Jeannie Oakes, Presidential Professor in Educational
Equity at UCLA, addressed the role of social movement
activism and grassroots organizing in education reform
in “Grassroots Mobilization and the Right to High-Quality
Education.” She argued that legal initiatives
and grassroots efforts are both necessary to achieve
and sustain educational equity. Amanda Broun, Senior
Vice President of the Public Education Network, spoke
on “Building Public Responsibility for Public
Education.” She used case studies from New York,
New Jersey, and Alabama to illustrate why public engagement
is necessary to build and sustain school reform and
how it has succeeded in a variety of settings and phases
of quality education litigation.
Legal History and Status
The discussion also addressed the legal history and
current status of litigation in school finance. Researchers
explored what the data shows us about finance reforms
in Texas (Andrew Reschovsky and Jennifer Imazeki), and
in New Jersey (Elaine Walker, Carol Fances, and Charles
Achilles). In “Educational Adequacy, Social Science,
and the Role of the Courts,” Michael Rebell, Executive
Director of the Campaign for Educational Equity, argued
in favor of court involvement in school funding litigations
– partnered in “legitimate legal discourse”
with the legislative and executive branches –
to ensure effective remedies and close the achievement
gap. Conference organizer Professor Goodwin Liu then
analyzed application of the fourteenth amendment to
education as a fundamental right, in “Education,
Equality, and National Citizenship.”
Conference paper abstracts are available.
Warren Institute Mission
The Warren
Institute’s mission is to engage the most
difficult topics related to civil rights, race, and
ethnicity in a wide range of legal and public policy
subject areas, providing valuable intellectual capital
to public and private sector leaders, the media, and
the general public while advancing scholarly understanding.
Central to its methods will be concerted efforts to
build bridges connecting the world of research with
the world of civic action and policy debate so that
each informs the other, while preserving the independence,
quality and credibility of the academic enterprise.
Quality Education Conference
On June 5-6, 2006, the education advocacy conference,
“Schools for Our Future: Ensuring Quality Education
for All Children,” in Washington, DC, will feature
sessions for litigators, policymakers, and grassroots
advocates, including “Engaging Youth in Education
Reform,” “Making Quality Education a Civil
Right,” and “Looking Ahead: NCLB Reauthorization,”
among many others. For more information about the conference,
click here.
Prepared by Katherine Lu, May 9, 2006
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