The Education Project - The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law - News Feed

HBCU Lawsuit: A Troubled Legacy

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0600

"Has Maryland reneged on its promise to desegregate the state's public institutions of higher learning? Has the state, in defiance of the law, continued to operate a dual system of separate and unequal schools based on race?

"The answer to such questions will decide the outcome of a potentially historic case that opened last week pitting the state's four historically black colleges and universities against the Maryland Higher Education Commission. At issue is whether the state has truly succeeded in overcoming the shameful legacy of its segregated past, or whether it has simply extended the policies and practices of that era into the present under a different guise.

"It may seem strange that such a question is being asked at all in the second decade of the 21^s^t century. After all, some 60 percent of the state's approximately 50,000 African-American college students now attend state public colleges and universities from which they once would have been barred because of their color.

"Meanwhile, the state's historically black colleges and universities — Morgan State University, Coppin State University, Bowie State University and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore — have all received significant increases in state funding that in some cases exceed those granted to Maryland's traditionally white institutions of higher learning.

"In addition, the state has worked to support the development of new academic programs, mission statements and capital improvement projects at its HBCUs, with the goal of putting them on a par with the other Maryland public colleges and universities in a way that makes them comparable to and competitive with their peers across the country.

"There's no question Maryland has made tremendous progress in recent decades toward rectifying the injustices of the era when racially segregated schools were the law of the land and the state operated a dual system of colleges and universities for the express purpose of keeping the races apart.

"But as important as these changes have been, plaintiffs argue, they have not gone nearly far enough. Though the state may no longer openly lavish funds on schools that predominantly serve white students while starving those mainly attended by blacks, it has yet to eliminate all vestiges of the policies and practices of the era of de jure segregation...."

To read the Baltimore Sun's article in full, please click here.

Reporting on the Maryland Historically Black Colleges and Universities Case and Trial

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0600

The following are articles that have been written about the case:

Baltimore Sun - Maryland Lawsuit: A Troubled Legacy (1-9-12)
LegalTimes - Maryland Higher Education Racial Discrimination Case Underway in Federal Court (1-4-12)
Wall Street Journal - Maryland School Segregation Case Goes to Trial (1-3-12)
Wall Street Journal – Echoes of ‘Brown v. Board’ in Maryland Trial Starting Tuesday (1-3-12)
Washington Post – Trial focuses on whether Md. black colleges receive enough state funding, support (1-3-12)
Associated Press – Trial starts in Maryland black schools suit (1-3-12)
Associated Press – Judge hears case over MD funding of black schools (1-3-12)
Baltimore Sun – Trial begins in federal lawsuit alleging continued segregation at Md. Universities (1-3-12)
Chronicle of Higher Education – Shame on Maryland (1-3-12)
Chronicle of Higher Education – In Court, Maryland’s Black Universities Seek More State Money and Policies to Protect Their Programs (1-3-12)
Bacon’s Rebellion – Full Funding for Virginia’s HBUs (1-3-12)
AFRO – The Rocky Road Following Brown vs. Board of Education: HBCU ‘Equality Lawsuit (12-21-11)
AFRO – HBCU ‘Equality’ Lawsuit: The Battle to Correct the Inequities Against Maryland’s Black Colleges (12-15-11)
Black Press USA – Maryland Faces Education Segregation Lawsuit (12-15-11)
AFRO – Maryland’s Ugly Segregated Past Must Be Shown (12-14-11)
Washington Post – Coppin State University moves to improve its low graduation rate (11-26-11)
Baltimore Sun – Morgan president says campus needs facelift: Wilson says dilapidated buildings don’t fit vision of a nationally renowned center for urban research (11-11-11)
The Towerlight – MHEC negotiating to avoid lawsuit for racial injustice (10-6-11)
AFRO – State Talks Settlement in HBCU Case (6-23-11)
Baltimore Sun – Settlement conference to be held in bias lawsuit: Group claims state discriminates against black colleges, universities (6-15-11)
AFRO – ‘This is a Big Win’: Court Ruling pushes State into trial this summer (6-9-11)
CityBixList Baltimore – Attorney General Gansler Issues Statement on The Coalition for Equity and Excellence in Maryland Higher Education, et al. v. Maryland Higher Education Commission, et al. (5-31-11)
WAMU – Legacy of Segregation in Higher Education? (1-20-11)
National Law Journal – Separation Anxiety (1-10-11)
NPR – Separate Is Not Equal; Black Colleges Sue State (12-12-10)
Gazette.Net – Changes afoot for state colleges (11-25-10)

To learn more about the matter of The Coalition for Equity and Excellence in Maryland Higher Education v. Maryland Higher Education Commission, please click here and here.

Maryland Higher Education Desegregation Trial Begins

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0600

As we prepare to observe the 26^th anniversary of the Martin Luther King Jr. federal holiday in January, we should reflect upon some of the subtle inequalities that still exist in our country today. Very close to our nation’s capital, a federal court will hear a lawsuit that questions whether the State of Maryland has satisfied its legal obligation to dismantle vestiges of its former segregated higher education system from the state’s historically black public universities.

Nearly 58 years after the decision in Brown vs. Board of Education, this is the issue at the heart of a five- year-old case in Maryland’s U.S. District Court – the first of its kind in the state and the first of its kind in the nation to go to trial in some 16 years.

In The Coalition for Equity and Excellence in Maryland Higher Education vs. Maryland’s Higher Education Commission, Plaintiffs argue that "throughout history and up to the present day, Maryland has maintained a racially segregated system of higher education and has systematically and purposefully engaged in a pattern and practice of racial discrimination that has prevented [public Historically Black Colleges and Universities in Maryland] from achieving parity with their traditionally White institution counterparts.”

“Maryland continues to disregard the urgency of our requests,” said Michael Jones, a partner with Kirkland & Ellis, who is serving as pro bono co-counsel to the plaintiffs. “Given the state’s long history of segregation, the time has now come for them to answer the tough questions about why equitable funding, facilities and school programs for HBCUs have been largely ignored and what they plan to do about it. The decision could have a far-reaching impact throughout the country.”

“As Maryland's 2008 blue ribbon HBI-panel found, Maryland must invest ‘substantial additional resources in HBIs ‘to overcome the competitive disadvantages caused by prior discriminatory treatment,’” said Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law Chief Counsel Jon Greenbaum, also serving as pro bono counsel to the plaintiffs. “We request that the court order Maryland to provide its HBIs with sufficient funding and parity in mission, academic program offerings, library services and facilities, science labs and facilities, information technology infrastructure, and other facets of their operations, as compared to its traditionally white institutions.”

Plaintiffs, who include alumni and students of Maryland’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), seek in excess of $2 billion in funding for the HBCUs as well as upgrading of their campus facilities and educational programs, particularly eradicating unnecessary program duplication.

Defendants are the State of Maryland, the Secretary of Higher Education in Maryland, and the Maryland Higher Education Commission (MHEC) – Maryland’s agency responsible for establishing statewide policies for Maryland public and private colleges and universities.

The State argues it has no legal obligation to enhance the HBCUs or to make their facilities comparable to the facilities at Maryland’s traditionally white schools. However, as recently as 2005, the Office of the Maryland Attorney General advised MHEC that its policies and practices were furthering -- not remedying -- segregation in violation of the nation’s civil rights laws. Additionally, Maryland’s Secretary of Higher Education in depositions has stated that the state still has not removed all vestiges of discrimination and has admitted that the HBCUs are not properly funded.

The four HBCUs that could be affected are Morgan State University, Coppin State University, Bowie State University and the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore – all of which are public.

“Unfortunately, today, HBCUs in Maryland are still suffering under the weight of disparities that were not remedied decades ago,” said David J. Burton, president of the Coalition and lead plaintiff.

Following pre-trial hearings last year, District Court Judge Catherine Blake ordered both parties to enter mediation to try and settle the case. However, after the last round of mediation in November failed to resolve the underlying issues, the case was scheduled to begin trial in January of 2012.

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On the morning of January 3rd, 2012, Michael Jones of Kirkland & Ellis, the Lawyers' Committee's pro bono partner in the matter of The Coalition for Equity and Excellence in Maryland Higher Education v. Maryland Higher Education Commission, delivered the Plaintiffs' opening statement before Judge Catherine Blake of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland in Baltimore.

To view the presentation that accompanied Mr. Jones' oral statement, please click here.

To learn more about the case, please click here.

Maryland School Segregation Case Goes to Trial

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0600

"More than a half-century after the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed segregation in public education, a court will decide if Maryland is doing enough to support the state's historically black public colleges and universities.

A lawsuit brought by a group largely made up of students and alumni from these schools, and headed to trial Tuesday in a Baltimore federal court, accuses the state of repeatedly failing to fulfill promises to desegregate the schools.

The group claims the state's higher education commission devoted millions of dollars over decades to "traditionally white institutions" that offer educational programs duplicating those from the black colleges. The overlapping offerings have made it difficult for the black schools, whose facilities often aren't as up to date as the white schools', to recruit and retain the best students and faculty members, the plaintiffs say."

To read the article in full, please click here.

To learn more about the case, The Coalition for Equity and Excellence in Maryland Higher Education v. Maryland Higher Education Commission, please click here.

Maryland Fails to Keep Its Promise to HBCUs: Lawsuit Demands Historically Black Institutions be Brought on Par with Historically White Ones

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0600

Maryland is attempting to renege on its obligation to provide sufficient funding to make its historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) comparable and competitive with other public universities in Maryland in terms of mission, academic program offerings, library services, information technology infrastructure, and other facets of their operations. For five years, the state has vigorously opposed a lawsuit by HBCU students and alumni that seeks to dismantle remnants of the formerly segregated higher education system. The case, The Coalition for Equity and Excellence in Maryland Higher Education v. Maryland's Higher Education Commission, is the first of its kind in the state and the first of its kind in the nation to go to trial in some 16 years.

To read the article by Jon Greenbaum of the Lawyers' Committee and Michael Jones of Kirkland & Ellis, both pro bono counsel for the Coalition for Equity and Excellence in Maryland Higher Education, please click here.

To learn more about the case, please click here.

The Rocky Road Following Brown vs Board of Education: HBCU 'Equality' Lawsuit

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0600

While the Coalition for Equity and Excellence in Maryland Higher Education Inc. sued the Maryland Higher Education Commission in 2006, the lawsuit – which goes to trial Jan. 3 in a Baltimore federal court – is really rooted in more than 50 years of education litigation, beginning with the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court outlawed all “separate but equal” facilities in the United States, declaring that “separate is inherently unequal.” The next year, the justices ordered that the nation’s school systems be desegregated “with all deliberate speed.”

For all school systems, including higher education, the court’s rulings were later reinforced by Title VI of the U. S. Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars discrimination by any entity or program that receives federal funds.

Maryland has admitted to operating a segregated higher education system – known as “de jure segregation” – but says it ended with the Brown decision.

As late as 1969, however, Maryland was among 10 states cited by what now is the Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education for operating a segregated and unequal university system. The next year, Maryland submitted a desegregation plan, but OCR determined it to be insufficient.

To read the article by Mr. Beamon in full, please click here.

To learn more about the case, please click here.

HBCU 'Equality' Lawsuit: The Battle to Correct the Inequities Against Maryland's Black Colleges

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0600

To read this article on the Lawyers' Committee and partners' case against the Maryland Higher Education Commission, please click here.

Maryland's Ugly Segregated Past Must Be Shown

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0600

To read this article regarding the Lawyers' Committee and partners' case against the Maryland Higher Education Commission, please click here.

Does School Choice Really Help Students?

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0600

Natalie Hopkinson offers her critical assessment of charter schools - and why she believes they fail to live up to the hype - especially in terms of instability and uncertainty for young students and whether they will be able to attend the school of their choice.

Listen to the full NPR program Tell Me More, or read the transcript

Racial Integration and Educational Quality

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0600

...Integrating schools is one of the best ways to bring educational excellence and equity to children of all racial and economic backgrounds. Studies show superior academic achievement by African American and Latino children educated in racially diverse schools and students of all backgrounds in integrated schools develop more positive attitudes and relationships with members of other races. Research also shows that non-minority students benefit from diverse and integrated learning environments.

New recent federal guidance documents, issued jointly by the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice, provide K-12 schools and universities with the information and tools they need to leverage diversity to achieve educational excellence for all children. The guidance documents highlight the benefits of school diversity and outline constitutional approaches for public school districts, colleges and universities to voluntarily pursue racial integration and diversity.

The federal guidance documents – Guidance on the Voluntary Use of Race to Achieve Diversity and Avoid Racial Isolation in Elementary and Secondary Schoolsand Guidance on the Voluntary Use of Race to Achieve Diversity in Post-Secondary Education – correct the Bush Administration’s guidance, which recommended schools not consider race at all in student assignment planning.

The Lawyers’ Committee agrees with the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice Departments and the majority of the Supreme Court which stated, our “nation’s future depends upon leaders trained through wide exposure to the ideas and mores of students as diverse as this Nation of many peoples.” Most major corporations, the military and other institutions have embraced diversity because they recognize that they can leverage a mosaic of talent and perspective to enhance their entire workforce and become more competitive. It is time that our schools do the same, to prepare all children to thrive in our increasingly diverse society and global economy....

To read the op-ed in full, please click here.

DOJ and DOE Issue Guidance on Diversity Policies in Educational Institutions

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0600

Today, the United States Department of Education and the United States Department of Justice jointly issued guidance that explains how educational institutions can lawfully pursue voluntary policies to achieve diversity or avoid racial isolation within the framework of Titles IV and VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and current case law. The new guidance documents review three key Supreme Court rulings on the use of race by educational institutions, and provide examples of options that schools and postsecondary institutions may wish to consider in structuring programs that lawfully further diversity or reduce racial isolation. The guidance is presented in two documents, one for elementary and secondary schools and the other for postsecondary institutions.

The guidance can be found here.

Lawyers' Committee and Coalition Partners Withhold Support for ESEA Proposal

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0600

In advance of today’s Senate HELP Committee Hearing on the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 2011, a bipartisan coalition of 29 civil rights groups, business associations, statewide education officials, and education advocates withholding support for the bill due to the absence of accountability measures continues to grow and now includes the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, StudentsFirst, the United Negro College Fund, the National Down Syndrome Congress, the Advocacy Institute, the Children’s Defense Fund, Public Advocates, and the Center for Law and Education.

Click here for a PDF of their joint statement

Lawyers' Committee and Partners Say "Don't Let Congress Turn Back the Clock on Teacher Quality"

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0500

Congress is debating this week whether to turn back the clock on advances for our most vulnerable students that were part of the legacy of No Child Left Behind. At stake as part of the debate is whether our legislators believe teachers should be required to complete a minimum level of training and demonstrate competence before they enter the classroom -- and especially whether poor and minority students, English language learners, and students with disabilities deserve equal access to such well-qualified teachers.

To provide some history, for years advocates and reformers have been pointing to the large achievement gap between black and Latino students and their white and more affluent peers, which has stayed stubbornly large since the Reagan reforms wiped out the educational investments and anti-poverty programs that had caused it to shrink significantly in the 1970s. In addition to the effects of growing childhood poverty and lack of health care, this gap has been exacerbated by a system that spends less on the schools that serve poor children and that frequently offers them the least qualified teachers and principals. Beginning in the late 1980s, as dwindling and unequal salaries caused growing teacher shortages in poor districts, states were encouraged to lower standards for entering teaching in these communities rather than increasing salaries or improving working conditions. In California, nearly 50% of the state's new teachers entered without training, virtually all of them assigned to teach in high-need schools. By the 1990s, it became common in some states for segregated schools serving high-need students in urban and rural areas to be staffed by a revolving door of inexperienced and untrained teachers.

This is one of the problems that NCLB tried to solve when it called for highly qualified teachers in all schools. States and districts were required to put in place recruitment and retention plans to ensure that schools could be staffed by teachers who knew their subject matter and how to teach it. Many states proved that they could greatly reduce teacher attrition and the need for emergency hires by equalizing salaries between rich and poor districts, offering scholarships to attract candidates to high-need fields and locations, and improving mentoring for beginners. For example, North Carolina's Teaching Fellows program paid for the preparation of hundreds of talented candidates who pledged to teach for 4 years in the state's schools, bringing long-term talent into the education system to teach math, science, and other critical subjects. Other successful examples include the teacher residency model and 'grow your own' programs, where teachers are fully trained and prepared with the tools they need to be effective in the classroom and provided the support they need to stay.

But the Bush administration responded to recalcitrance from some by watering down the law to allow teachers who had just begun training in alternate routes to be called "highly qualified" even though they had minimal to no training and had met no standards of teaching competence. This encouraged the ongoing concentration of untrained novices in schools serving the neediest students, without public accountability or any requirements to solve the underlying problem. In California, for example, more than 2/3 of interns teach in highly segregated schools that serve more than 75% minority students, and more than 50% seek special education credentials.

When low-income and minority parents and students sued the federal government to challenge this administrative interpretation and won, their victory was short-lived. Within a few weeks and with no public notice or debate, Congress last year enacted an amendment -- its sole amendment to NCLB in the ten-year history of the law -- to write the unlawful Bush-era regulation into statute. In so doing, Congress labeled teachers-in-training in alternative route programs as "highly qualified," condoned their disproportionate concentration in low-income, high-minority schools, and permitted states and districts to hide these facts from parents and the public.

The Harkin/Enzi bill builds this troubling amendment into the fabric of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act reauthorization bill. While the bill maintains NCLB's "highly qualified teacher" terminology, its definition of the term to include teachers-in-training sets a standard so low as to make the phrase virtually meaningless and its protections for at-risk students nearly nonexistent. Even more troubling, the bill's "highly qualified teacher" standard applies only to teachers in their first year or so, after which the bill abandons teacher qualifications to focus on teacher evaluation results in states that have implemented evaluation systems.

Some would say that the new provisions for evaluation systems make any attention to teachers' initial qualifications unnecessary. But this "effectiveness only" approach ignores the reality that states' evaluation systems won't be up and running for at least a few years, and, once implemented, will require a few years of classroom data from which to determine an individual teacher's effectiveness. (We put aside, for the moment, whether the teacher evaluation standards set forth in the bill will result in valid and reliable measures of teacher effectiveness and incentivize quality teaching.)

The Harkin/Enzi proposal will allow untrained teachers to teach for years before their effectiveness is ever measured. We think that's unacceptable. Students deserve teachers who are both fully-trained to teach on their first day in the classroom and, if they stay, who prove themselves effective at educating children. In the words of Candice Johnson, a student in South-Central Los Angeles who experienced first hand the effects of this misguided federal policy and visited Congress last spring to demand it be changed: "Why is it OK for students like me to be taught by teachers-in-training? If intern teachers are good enough for me, why aren't they good enough for the students down the road in Beverly Hills?"

Congress cannot pretend that it really cares about closing the achievement gap or providing equal opportunities to learn if it refuses to address the most fundamental right -- the basis on which all high-achieving countries have built their successful systems: the right of every child to have a fully-prepared and qualified teacher who knows how to teach their subject matter effectively, and is expected to do so.

Fortunately, there's still time for Congress to do the right thing. When the ESEA is marked up in committee this Wednesday, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) will offer amendments to strengthen the definition of highly qualified teacher and end the practice of congregating the least prepared teachers in the highest need schools. The Sanders amendments will also require that, where untrained teachers are hired to fill shortages, they be adequately supervised and that parents be notified when their child is being taught by such a teacher. The amendment has the support of a coalition of 82 organizations -- including ours.

Let's hope Congress corrects the mistake it made last year and finally fulfills the promise to provide all students -- and especially poor and minority students, English language learners, and students with disabilities -- with qualified and effective teachers. Our future depends on it.

Deborah A. Ziegler, Associate Executive Director, Council for Exceptional Children
Susan Henderson, Executive Director, Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund
Barbara Arnwine, Executive Director, Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
Brent Wilkes, National Executive Director, League of United Latin American Citizens
Claude Mayberry, President, National Council on Educating Black Children
Wendy D. Pureifoy, President and CEO, Public Education Network
John Affeldt, Managing Attorney, Public Advocates Inc.
Robert Mahaffey, Director of Communications, Rural School and Community Trust

To read the piece as it appeared on the Huffington Post, please click here.

Oprah-Backed Charter School Denying Disabled Collides With Law

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0500

New Orleans students with disabilities continue to face discrimination in their public schools, and several new articles expose the shameful treatment experienced by these students. On behalf of its clients in its New Orleans special education litigation, P.B. v. Pastorek, the Lawyers’ Committee is encouraged to see the national media shed light on the illegal discriminatory actions that New Orleans schools commit against our most vulnerable students.

Please click on following links to read the recent coverage of this issue:

Bloomberg Businessweek, "Oprah-Backed Charter School Denying Disabled Collides With Law"

Huffington Post, "Lawrence Melrose, New Orleans 9th Grader, Allegedly Kept Out Of Oprah Winfrey Celebration Due To 'Embarrassment'"

Louisiana's Recovery School District Chief Plans Central Enrollment System, Technical Training, More

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0500

"The head of the state-run Recovery School District, which governs most of the city's public schools, issued a wide-ranging strategic plan Tuesday aimed at tackling the district's most chronic shortcomings. Now almost four months into the job and having completed a round of community meetings to gather advice, Superintendent John White outlined his plans as a series of 12 'commitments.' His priorities reflect the gaps that remain nearly six years after the state began rebuilding a storm-devastated school system from the ground up."

The Recovery School District's "12 Commitments" are aimed at addressing systemic issues in both general education and special education, some of which are at the root of the Lawyers' Committee's case against the Louisiana Department of Education, P.B. v. Pastorek. In New Orleans, over 4,500 students with disabilities are denied equal access to educational opportunities, routinely pushed out of school, and subject to discrimination on the basis of their disabilities. The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Patterson Belknap Webb and Tyler, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Community Justice Clinic at the Loyola University New Orleans School of Law, and the Southern Disability Law Center are representing some of these students in an effort to ensure that they are provided with access to equal educational opportunities.

To read the entire article from The Times-Picayune, please click here.

To read the "12 Commitments," please click here.

To learn about our case on behalf of students with special needs in New Orleans, please click here.

Announcement: PREP will hold a workshop and consultation clinic in San Diego on August 20th!

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0500

Upcoming PREP Event – Saturday, August 20^th

PREP will participate in the New ERAA Back to School Conference, Rally for Education & Festival on Saturday, August 20, 2011 in San Diego at Lincoln High School, 4777 Imperial Ave, San Diego, CA 92113.

Promoting Student Success Through Parent Engagement Workshop

Time: 9:40 - 10:35 a.m. (in English)

Time: 11:15 a.m. - 12:10 p.m. (in Spanish)

Learn about:

· The current best strategies in parent engagement

· The barriers parents face in becoming engaged in their child’s education

· Solutions to promoting effective parent engagement

Educational Consultation Clinic

Time: 12:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.

At the clinic, parents who register for a special one hour appointment will be able to:

· Meet with a volunteer advocate for an hour to discuss their child’s educational needs

· Ask volunteer advocates about questions regarding their child’s education

· Create an action plan to support their child's success

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The event is free, all parents are welcome, and Spanish-speaking interpreters will be provided at the clinic.

We look forward to seeing you on the 20th!

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To Register:

This PREP Workshop & Clinic will be presented as part of the New ERAA Back to School Conference and Festival.

To sign up for the conference and PREP Workshop:
http://www.pazzaz.org/forms/NewERAA.registration-Eng2.pdf

To make an appointment for the PREP Clinic:
please call (202) 662-8350 or email PREP@lawyerscommittee.org

Lawyers' Committee Supports New Supportive School Discipline Initiative

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0500

The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law welcomes Attorney General Holder and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announcement of the creation of the Supportive School Discipline Initiative. The Lawyers’ Committee is dedicated to promoting federal, state, and local initiatives to address the school-to-prison pipeline and supports Attorney General Holder’s and Secretary Duncan’s joint initiative.

The Initiative is a collaboration between the two agencies that hopes to target the school disciplinary policies and in-school arrests that push youth out of school and into the justice system. The initiative announced last Thursday has four parts: building consensus for action among federal, state and local education and justice stakeholders; collaborating on research and data collection needed to shape policy, such as evaluations of alternative disciplinary policies and interventions; developing guidance to ensure school discipline policies and practices are in line with the federal civil rights laws; and promoting awareness and knowledge about evidence-based and promising policies and practices.

As Attorney General Holder remarked, “Ensuring that our educational system is a doorway to opportunity – and not a point of entry to our criminal justice system – is a critical, and achievable, goal. “ The Lawyers’ Committee fully supports the goals of the initiative and views it as a great complement to the ongoing work of the Educational Opportunities Project.

A press release about the announcement of the Supportive School Discipline Initiative is available by clicking here.

Educational Opportunities and Public Policy Projects Express Support for "The Successful, Safe, and Healthy Students Act (S. 919)"

Fri, 08 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0500

On July 7th, the Lawyers' Committee's Educational Opportunities and Public Policy Projects joined the Dignity in Schools Coalition's letter of support to Chairman Harkin on The Successful, Safe, and Healthy Students Act (S. 919).

"The Successful, Safe, and Healthy Students Act (SSHSA) provides a smarter, cost-effective approach for supporting the health and success of students and schools. Like current provisions in Title IV of the ESEA, the SSHSA will provide funding for efforts to promote physical and mental health, address bullying and harassment through preventive and positive practices, counter school violence and drug-use, and improve school climate through school-wide approaches like Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports and restorative practices. Unlike current law, the SSHSA will better target these funds to the demonstrated needs of schools and districts. The SSHSA will provide parents, educators, and policymakers the data they need to identify and address issues unique to each district while encouraging greater collaboration between schools and communities to ensure all students are successful, safe, and healthy."

To read the letter in full, please click here.

To read the text of the bill, please click here.

Lawyers' Committee Applauds Federal Court Decision Striking Down Michigan Affirmative Action Ban

Thu, 07 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0500

On Friday, July 1, 2011, a panel of judges on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision in Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action v. Regents of the University of Michigan striking down a 2006 amendment to the Michigan Constitution banning affirmative action in admissions and hiring decisions in higher education and public agencies. The Court found that the amendment’s reordering of the political structure to the disadvantage of racial minorities amounted to an unconstitutional violation of the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. The Lawyers’ Committee applauds this decision and is committed to promoting opportunity and diversity in higher education.

This decision is the latest development in a longstanding battle over the consideration of race in Michigan’s public higher education system. In 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court considered the admissions practices of both the University of Michigan’s undergraduate liberal arts program as well as the University of Michigan Law School. The court struck down the undergraduate admissions policy in Gratz v. Bollinger while upholding the Law School’s policy practice of considering racial minority status as a positive factor among a balance of competing considerations in Grutter v. Bollinger. In response to Grutter, voters in Michigan passed Proposal 2 in 2006, which amended the Michigan Constitution to prohibit any positive consideration of race in university admissions or government hiring. The amendment was challenged by a coalition of students, professors, and university applicants for its violation of the federal Constitution.

In deciding this case, the Sixth Circuit relied heavily on two Supreme Court precedents: Washington v. Seattle Sch. Dist. No. 1 and Hunter v. Erickson. These cases stand for the proposition that the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection under the law ensures that racial minorities have the same right to access and attempt to influence the political and governmental decision-making processes as all other groups. Following the standard articulated in these two cases, the Court held that a constitutional violation occurs where there is any measure that (1) targets a state action that inures primarily to the benefit of a racial minority, (2) not only eliminates the benefit, but places extra political obstacles before the minority if it were to seek to reinstate the beneficial state action or policy.

The Court found that the policy upheld in Grutter had a sufficient “racial focus” and was designed and implemented in a way that benefitted racial minorities primarily. Then, the Court held that the amendment amounts to a restructuring of the governmental decision-making process and prevents racial minorities from advocating for beneficial policies on equal footing with other groups. In a 2-1 decision, the Court held that this political restructuring violated the U.S. Constitution.

The state has promised to appeal this case. It may be heard by the full Sixth Circuit (en banc) or the U.S. Supreme Court soon, and the Lawyers’ Committee will be following this case closely.

Lawyers' Committee Opposes Louisiana Charter School Bill, HB 421

Wed, 22 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0500

The Educational Opportunities Project and Public Policy Department have issued a joint statement in opposition to new charter school legislation, HB 421, passed this week in Louisiana. The legislation, awaiting Gov. Jindal’s signature, permits corporations to reserve up to fifty percent of a public charter school’s enrollment for children of its employees, in exchange for a corporation making a donation to the school valuing at least fifty percent of the school’s state funding.

This legislation constitutes the further privatization of Louisiana’s public schools, and promotes the creation of a tiered system of education. The spirit of this legislation is directly contrary to Louisiana’s state constitution, which ensures equal opportunity in public education.

The Lawyers’ Committee, through the Educational Opportunities Project and Public Policy Department, is a leader in the fight to protect the rights of all children to equally access meaningful educational opportunities. The Lawyers’ Committee is firmly opposed to this Louisiana legislation, and urges Governor Jindal to oppose it as well.

Click here for the Lawyers’ Committee’s opposition letter to Gov. Jindal.

Lawyers' Committee Announces Next PREP Event in San Diego, California

Tue, 17 May 2011 00:00:00 -0500

On Saturday, June 4, 2011, PREP will hold a workshop on Parents' Rights and Responsibilities: Special Education Workshop and Educational Consultation Clinic in San Diego at Cherokee Point Elementary School.

At the workshop, parents will have the opportunity to:

Learn more about the Special Education process
Find out what an “IEP” is
Learn how to prepare for an IEP meeting & more!

At the clinic, parents who choose to register for a special one hour session will be able to:

Meet with a volunteer advocate for an hour to discuss their child’s educational needs
Create an action plan to support their child's success

The event is free, all parents are welcome, lunch and childcare will be provided, and all presentations will be made in both Spanish and English. Registration is limited to the first 50 parents, so register soon by completing the form at the bottom of the attached flyer or calling (619) 293-4431.

For more information and to access the registration form, please click here.

We look forward to seeing you on the 4th!

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To view the event flyer and registration form in Spanish, please click here.

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This PREP Workshop will be presented in collaboration with the Ballard Parent Center and the Parent Outreach and Engagement and Special Education Departments of San Diego Unified School District.

Connect with us! PREP is available on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube

Reflections on the 57th Anniversary of the Landmark Brown v. Board of Education

Tue, 17 May 2011 00:00:00 -0500

Today's 57^th Anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision provides an opportunity for the Lawyers' Committee and civil rights advocates to reflect on our national progress towards achieving equality and justice for all. At the heart of the Brown decision is the maxim that "separate is not equal" - and it is of profound importance that we strive for and celebrate diversity in all forms. Specifically, the Brown decision highlighted the importance of diversity in our public schools and an equal opportunity for all children, regardless of color, to access a quality public education. The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law's 48-year history demonstrates its defense of these values, and combined work of the Policy Department and the Educational Opportunities Project has led the Committee's efforts to ensure that the legacy of Brown v. Board of Education is realized across our nation's public schools and in our systems of public higher education.

Indeed, Brown's promises of diversity and equal educational opportunity have not been fully realized in our public education system. According to the Civil Rights Project at the University of California, data shows that most African-American and Latino students attend schools that are three-fourths minority students, with two in five Latino and African-American students attending intensely segregated schools of 90-100 percent minority enrollment. This reflects a steady increase from the 1980s, when only one-third of this student population attended similarly segregated schools.

This nation must continue to actively pursue diversity in our public schools, and the Lawyers' Committee applauds the agencies and advocates who continue to prioritize the Brown legacy in their ongoing work. Recently, the Departments of Justice and Education have issued a joint policy affirming that students could not be denied access to a public school education on the basis of their immigration status. Throughout the past year, the Committee has also been encouraged by the compliance reviews initiated by the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights and the Department of Justice's recent investigation into a Mississippi school district for failure to desegregate its public schools. Lastly, the Committee is particularly pleased with the Department of Justice's amicus brief in the Pennsylvania litigation, Doe v. Lower Merion School District, which largely tracked the Committee's amicus brief jointly submitted with NAACP's Legal Defense & Education Fund and the ACLU.

These recent investigations and rulings complement the Educational Opportunities Project's mission of advancing diversity and equal educational opportunities. Over the course of the last five years, the Educational Opportunities Project has:

Investigated complaints of public school discrimination and segregation in Richmond County, NC; Schley County, GA; and Champaign County, IL
Supported litigation or filed amicus briefs in K-12 desegregation actions in Thomasville, GA; Pitt County, NC; and Lower Merion School District in Pennsylvania; monitored desegregation settlement decrees in Pitt County, NC and in Connecticut; and filed Amicus Briefs on the Supreme Court's 2006 Parents Involved decision
Filed a complaint with the Dept. of Education's Office for Civil Rights alleging that racial discrimination motivated the decision to close Nichols Elementary School in Biloxi, MS.
Co-counseled litigation against the State of Maryland for failure to fully remove the vestiges of de jure segregation from its public colleges and universities
Co-counseled litigation against the State of Louisiana for failure to provide a free appropriate public education to New Orleans public school students with disabilities
Held a community education clinic in New Orleans, LA to educate parents on their children's rights to access special education services, challenge inappropriate disciplinary actions, and navigate educational opportunities available in New Orleans' decentralized charter school system.
Joined with the civil rights coalition to promote diversity and equal educational opportunities in the re-authorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), and published a "Framework for Providing All Students an Opportunity to Learn through Reauthorization of the ESEA."
Launched the Parental Readiness & Empowerment Program (PREP) in the San Diego Unified School District, which seeks to improve K-12 studentperformance, retention, and access to equal educational opportunities for low-income and minority children in targeted communities by increasing parental engagement and ensuring that parents become successful advocates.

Furthermore, as the Lawyers' Committee works in the States and in the Courtroom, it also continues to advocate on the policy level to effectuate broad based, institutional changes to our education system that will effectively ensure educational equity for all students, particularly students of color. To this end, the Lawyers' Committee has been advocating for broad-based accountability reforms in Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and prioritization of resource equity and other accountability measures throughout the entire Act:

http://www.lawyerscommittee.org/admin/site/documents/files/Civil-Rights-ESEA-Accountability-Letter.pdf

http://www.lawyerscommittee.org/admin/site/documents/files/Framework-for-Providing-All-Students-an-Opportunity-to-Learn.pdf

The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law remains committed to protecting and defending the legacy of Brown v. Board of Education, and calls upon every citizen in this nation to prioritize achieving its promise of diversity and equal educational opportunity for all students, so that the American dream is not a just a reality a few, but for all.

Lawyers' Committee Gives Oral Argument in Maryland HBCU Case

Thu, 12 May 2011 00:00:00 -0500

On May 11th, oral argument was held before Judge Catherine C. Blake in the matter of the Coalition for Equity and Excellence in Maryland Higher Education v. Maryland Higher Education Commission on a motion for summary judgment filed by the defendants'.

Despite insistence from the defendants' that Maryland has undergone drastic changes and no vestiges of segregation persist in it's higher education system, the Lawyers' Committee's Jon Greenbaum argued that "over the last several decades, [Maryland's colleges and unviersities have] actually become more segregated."

Plaintiffs' maintain that Maryland has not affirmatively dismantled its prior segregated system and has preserved policies and practices that have perpetuated the existence of segregated and racially identifiable colleges in Maryland.

Click here to read an article on the argument from the Baltimore Sun.

To learn more about the case, please click here.

May PREP Workshop and Clinic a Success!

Sat, 07 May 2011 00:00:00 -0500

On Saturday, May 7, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law continued the work of its Parental Readiness and Empowerment Program (PREP) with a parent workshop at Sherman Elementary School in San Diego, California.

The workshop, “School Discipline: Parents’ Rights & Responsibilities,” was presented in concurrent Spanish and English sessions in collaboration with the San Diego Unified School District’s Parent Outreach and Engagement Department. Almost 50 parents attended the successful event and were provided with important materials related to school discipline including district policies and parent guides on how to prepare for a suspension meeting and how to prepare for an expulsion hearing.

During the workshop, parents learned the importance of being a good advocate and how to improve their own advocacy skills to support their child’s education. Through role plays, small group exercises, and group discussion, parents enthusiastically participated in an interactive learning session to increase their knowledge of the school discipline process and effective advocacy techniques. Parents also shared their personal stories and ideas on how to improve their own advocacy skills. One parent's testimonial of what she learned at the workshop is available here: http://www.youtube.com/PREPparents.

Thanks to the support of our volunteers from Qualcomm, DLA Piper, and the NAACP, nine parents were served at our first educational consultation clinic! Parents discussed their children’s educational needs and created an action plan with the volunteer advocates.

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The next PREP workshop will take place on Saturday, June 4^th at Cherokee Point Elementary from 9:30 a.m – 1:00 p.m. The workshop will focus on special education and will be presented in Spanish and English. In addition to the workshop, an educational consultation clinic will be offered from 1 – 3:30 pm where parents can meet with a trained volunteer advocate to discuss their child’s educational needs. Parents should RSVP to make an appointment for the clinic. For more information on the event and to access the registration form, please click here.

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Connect with us! PREP is available on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube

For more information on PREP, please click here.

Lawyers' Committee Applauds Release of Federal Guidance: Equal Access to Educational Opportunity Regardless of Citizenship or Immigration Status

Fri, 06 May 2011 00:00:00 -0500

The Lawyers’ Committee welcomes the May 6^th guidance letter issued jointly by the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division and the Office for Civil Rights for the United States Department of Education reinforcing a school’s obligation to admit students regardless of actual or perceived citizenship or immigration status. The guidance responds to concerns that student enrollment practices may “chill or discourage the participation in, or lead to the exclusion, of students based on their or their parents’ or guardians’ actual or perceived citizenship or immigration status.” Such practices violate Federal law. Title IV and VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 both prohibit discrimination based on race, color, or national origin in public schools. The guidance also clarifies school admission procedures in light of the United States Supreme Court case of Plyler v. Doe, 457 U.S. 202 (1982).

Plyer struck down a Texas statute which sought to withhold state funds used to educate children who were not "legally admitted" into the United States, and authorized local school districts to deny enrollment to such children. The Supreme Court held the statute violated the Equal Protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Neither the undocumented status of alien children, nor the state's asserted interest in the preservation of its limited resources for the education of its lawful residents, established a sufficient rational basis for the discrimination contained in the statute. A denial of basic education denies children “the ability to live within the structure of our civic institutions, and foreclose any realistic possibility that they will contribute in even the smallest way to the progress of our nation.” Plyler at 223.

Districts are encouraged to review their policies to determine whether they have the intended or unintended effect of discouraging enrollment of undocumented children. A school district may require utility bills or documentation of residency within the district boundaries when enrolling a student, but school districts may not ask about a child’s citizenship or immigration status. While a school district may require a birth certificate to determine a child’s age, they must accept a foreign birth certificate for this purpose. Similarly, failure to provide a social security number cannot prevent a child’s enrollment in school. A school may request a student’s social security number if (1) the school district informs the student and parents that providing it is voluntary; and (2) the school explains the purpose for requesting the social security number and for what purpose the number will be used. Providing race or ethnicity data is also voluntary, but a student cannot be denied enrollment if such data is not provided.

The full guidance letter can be found at: http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/whatsnew.html.