The Constitution of Opportunity

2019 ◽  
pp. 261-282
Author(s):  
Rachel F. Moran
Keyword(s):  
School Finance ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Educational Opportunity ◽  
State Court ◽  
Equal Educational Opportunity ◽  
Finance Reform ◽  
Disadvantaged Children ◽  
Equal Education ◽  
Adequate Education ◽  
Civic Duties

In this chapter, Rachel F. Moran explains that equal educational opportunity is essential to prepare students for civic duties, but significant inequalities inevitably result from sorting students for jobs. In recent years, efficiency has become a driving force behind school reform, one that subordinates equal citizenship to the demands of a global economy. These tensions are most evident in school finance reform as calls for equal education devolve into demands for adequate education. Despite state court victories, disparities in per-pupil resources remain severe, threatening to deprive disadvantaged children of any meaningful opportunity to approximate the accomplishments of their privileged peers. In Moran’s view, reformers must craft a right to education that guarantees every child a fair opportunity to compete. Only then will disadvantaged students have authentic pathways to civic participation and upward mobility, pathways that can make the American dream feel like a real promise rather than a remote possibility.

Learning Patterns in the Disadvantaged

1967 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 546-593 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Stodolsky ◽  
Gerald Lesser
Keyword(s):  
Educational Policy ◽  
Educational Opportunity ◽  
Equal Educational Opportunity ◽  
Alternative Definition ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Disadvantaged Children ◽  
Learning Patterns ◽  
Definition Of

The authors review evidence and suggest future directions for research on the learning patterns of disadvantaged children. After a detailed description of a specific case of research, some implications for educational policy are discussed. The authors take issue with James S. Coleman's definition of the concept of "equal educational opportunity"and advance an alternative definition. The problem of achieving a useful definition of the term "disadvantaged"is addressed throughout the paper.

Contested Meanings of Equality: The Unrealized Promise of the Antidiscrimination Principle and the Uncertain Future of a Right to Education

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel F. Moran
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
School Finance ◽  
English Language ◽  
Educational Opportunity ◽  
Equal Educational Opportunity ◽  
Right To Education ◽  
School Finance Litigation ◽  
The Government ◽  
Uncertain Future

Many people take for granted that the antidiscrimination principle and an equality norm are one and the same. In fact, there are significant differences that should not be overlooked. Education law offers unique insights into the distinctions because school desegregation cases both concretized demands to be free of discrimination and cultivated aspirations to be equal. In the years since 1954, when the U.S. Supreme Court declared that racially separate schools are inherently unequal in Brown v. Board of Education, the antidiscrimination principle has evolved into a requirement that the government be colorblind; that is, public officials must refrain from all consideration of race in their decision-making. A colorblindness requirement can have perverse consequences for equality. Most notably, local school districts today cannot weigh race in making student assignments to promote voluntary integration. Faced with constraints like these, reformers have sought to capitalize on an antidiscrimination principle without sacrificing their goals for equality. For example, federal civil rights statutes designed to protect children with disabilities and English language learners mandate meaningful access to the curriculum as well as protection from discrimination. In school finance litigation, advocates have moved even further away from an antidiscrimination focus. They have demanded recognition of a right to education, an interest that acknowledges every child’s right to flourish. New strategies that push beyond the antidiscrimination principle to promote equal educational opportunity have not been uniformly successful, but they can deepen our understanding of a fair and inclusive educational system.

Unequal Opportunities and Inequitable Outcomes

2018 ◽  
pp. 209-239
Author(s):  
Josephine M. LaPlante
Keyword(s):  
School Finance ◽  
Educational Opportunity ◽  
Learning Opportunities ◽  
Educational Opportunities ◽  
Equal Educational Opportunity ◽  
Learning Resources ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
State Education ◽  
Political Forces ◽  
Unequal Opportunities

This chapter reviews social, economic, and political forces that cause and exacerbate educational disparities across and within states and considers how federal and state education finance policies are contributing to the persistence and growth of differences that deprive some children of needed learning opportunities. Many school finance experts and policy makers believe that providing the same number of dollars for each pupil will purchase similar educational opportunities. However, an expectation that different conditions require schools to spend different per pupil amounts has been guiding analysis in school finance challenges. The efficacy of equalizing per pupil dollars as a strategy for ensuring equal educational opportunity is tested empirically by comparing learning resources across Maine school districts. The results reveal educational resources available in schools where there are larger proportions of needy children are notably lower than those in schools with smaller percentages of needy children.

scholarly journals New Mexico’s 2019 School Finance Reforms and The Essential Building Blocks for State School Finance

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 18
Author(s):  
David G. Hinojosa
Keyword(s):  
New Mexico ◽  
School Finance ◽  
Educational Opportunity ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
The State ◽  
State Court ◽  
State School ◽  
Legislative Reforms ◽  
Policy Institute ◽  
Relationship Of

This article discusses the State of New Mexico’s school finance reforms during the 2019 legislative session and the relationship of those reforms to The Essential Building Blocks for State School Finance. The Essential Building Blocks is a 2018 report written by the author for the Learning Policy Institute that provides essential, research-based guidance to policymakers and advocates who write school finance laws to ensure more equitable school finance policies. The legislative reforms follow a state court victory in 2019 by plaintiff families and school districts suing the state on school finance and educational opportunity claims in Martínez v. State of New Mexico and Yazzie v. State of New Mexico. The author examines how the Legislature’s efforts measure up against the guidance articulated in The Essential Building Blocks. The author also interviews the Gallup-McKinley County Schools superintendent to assess the reforms and how they relate to realizing educational opportunity for all students as described in The Essential Building Blocks. The author concludes that while the state made some progress in its school finance reforms, the absence of a strategic, holistic plan grounded in equity will likely leave the state’s underserved children without the educational opportunities they need to succeed. If the state’s leadership can match its strong principles and goals of equity and multiculturalism with a formidable school finance system that appropriately invests in its students and educators as reflected in The Essential Building Blocks, the state will be poised to realize equity and opportunity for all students.

scholarly journals The High Cost of The Nation's Current Framework for Education Federalism

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimberly J. Robinson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
School Finance ◽  
Educational Opportunity ◽  
The United States ◽  
Equal Educational Opportunity ◽  
Education Politics ◽  
School Finance Litigation ◽  
Major Reform ◽  
Future Work

This Article will show the consistent ways that the current understanding of education federalism within the United States has hindered three of the major reform efforts to promote a more equitable distribution of educational opportunity: school desegregation, school finance litigation, and, most recently, NCLB. In exploring how education federalism has undermined these efforts, this Article adds to the understanding of other scholars who have critiqued these reforms and examined why the nation has failed to guarantee equal educational opportunity. For example, scholars have argued that the failure to undertake earnest efforts to achieve equal educational opportunity is caused by a variety of factors, including the lack of political will to accomplish this goal, the domination of suburban influences over education politics, and the failure of the United States to create a social welfare system that addresses the social and economic barriers that impede the achievement of many poor and minority students.1s In a past work, I also explored some of the reasons that these efforts have failed to ensure equal educational opportunity. In light of this literature, education federalism undoubtedly is not the only factor that has influenced the nation's inability to ensure equal educational opportunity. Nevertheless, it is important to understand the consistent ways in which education federalism has contributed to the ineffectiveness of efforts to ensure equal educational opportunity as scholars propose new avenues to achieve this paramount goal. In addition, in both past and future work, I argue that the nation should consider embracing a new framework for education federalism that would enable the nation to more effectively achieve its goals for public schools. Understanding how education federalism has hindered past reforms is an essential part of exploring how education federalism should be reshaped.

The School-to-Prison Pipeline: How Federal Antidiscrimination Law Fails to Protect Equal Educational Opportunity

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik J. Girvan
Keyword(s):  
Students Of Color ◽  
Equal Opportunity ◽  
School Discipline ◽  
Educational Opportunity ◽  
Equal Educational Opportunity ◽  
Exclusionary Discipline ◽  
Federal Law ◽  
School To Prison Pipeline ◽  
Equal Education ◽  
Antidiscrimination Law

Among the core values of a democratic system is that children and youth, whatever their background, should have an equal opportunity to become responsible, productive, and successful members of society. In moderation, exclusionary school discipline, such as suspensions and expulsions, may support this value by helping schools to preserve safe and orderly learning environments. In excess and when applied more frequently to students of color, however, removing students from the classroom undermines equal educational opportunity. This chapter explains how the rights that federal antidiscrimination law creates for students are poorly suited to protect them from the excessive and inequitable use of exclusionary discipline embodied in what is frequently referred to as the “school-to-prison pipeline.” It first introduces and defines the school-to-prison pipeline with respect to its central characteristics related to school discipline. The chapter then reviews the scope of the basic sources of federal antidiscrimination law and identifies the limited circumstances in which they prohibit use of exclusionary discipline. Third, it summarizes the results of empirical research investigating the primary causes of racial disparities in exclusionary school discipline. The chapter concludes with a discussion of how federal law does not support or advance the value of equal education opportunity in this context because it fails to account for or address the major causes of excessive and inequitable exclusionary discipline, and with some thoughts about moving forward.

Latina/os and a Federal Right to Education

2019 ◽  
pp. 109-132
Author(s):  
Kevin R. Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Predominantly White ◽  
Educational Outcomes ◽  
Educational Opportunity ◽  
Equal Educational Opportunity ◽  
Racial Groups ◽  
Educational Inequalities ◽  
Right To Education ◽  
Equal Education ◽  
Predominantly White Schools ◽  
White Schools

In this chapter, Kevin R. Johnson argues that Latina/os would benefit from a federal right to education as a means to supplement an array of litigation strategies that have failed to ensure equal educational opportunity for Latina/os. He argues the growth in the Latina/o population has been accompanied by widespread segregation of Latina/o students in schools across the country. Heavily Latina/o schools on the average are funded at significantly lower levels than predominantly white schools are, and educational outcomes for Latina/os on the average lag behind those of all other racial groups. Johnson contends that Latina/os, suffering from stark educational inequalities, need new legal mechanisms to secure equal education and concludes that Latina/os would benefit from a federal right to education.

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