Weekly Message 12/16/2024
Weekly Message 12/16/2024
Education as a Civil Right: Disrupting the School to Prison Pipeline
Protecting education as a Civil Right is key and critical to ensuring a thriving democracy. As citizens of this nation, we have come to realize that when the nation is negligent in doing so, America’s most vulnerable; African American students and those impacted by the effects of poverty are the greatest at risk.
It is for this reason that the Rainbow PUSH Coalition maintains our position relevant to addressing on an ongoing basis, the impact of decision making at local, state and federal levels on the diverse population of students that attend public schools.
The intent of this week’s update is to expand our focus relevant to the use of the word diverse. We recognize that a greater majority of conversations around the achievement levels and social/emotional well-being of America’s students has not focused enough on targeted discussions toward identifying what is in is the best interest (from both a policy or practical level), of students with disabilities, students from diverse linguistic backgrounds and students thrusted into juvenile detention centers, in part, due to inequitable disciplinary practices relevant procedures implemented at the school and district levels nationwide. It is our concern that the procedures are often implemented because of limited focus on the stark reality that students with disabilities are more likely to face disciplinary action at a disproportionate rate in comparison to their non-disabled peers. In fact, studies have shown that students of color are more likely than their white peers to be arrested and subsequently go deeper into juvenile detention centers, and for years on end.
From an academic perspective, research also continues to show that African American students are overrepresented in special education, underrepresented in gifted education (with three out of four Black students never being identified) for gifted education. Decisions around how to reverse this narrative are time sensitive as the nation prepares to brace itself in response to the contents of Project 2025. The authors of Project 2025 describe it as “the next conservative President’s last opportunity to save our republic.” It is imperative for us to be clear about the impact of what is formally referred to as a Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise (also referred to as Project 2025), on children of color and children with disabilities so that we can remain diligent in our advocacy efforts.
As proposed, transferring education to the states would not automatically ensure that students with disabilities would maintain the same levels of protection they are granted by federal law as currently described by the U.S. Department of Education. In addition to the disheartening reality that the federal government has never fully funded special education as was authorized by the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA), in 1975. The goal at the time was to ensure federal funding covering 40% of the cost of special education. Today even while still the responsibility of the federal government, the current funding level remains at less than 15%.
Our charge is to understand at a very micro level the impact of decisions of such a great magnitude on our nation’s students and then come together as a coalition of the willing to develop very strategic plans of actions designed to ensure that our voices are heard and the officials that we elect to represent us, do so very well, by keeping their finger on the pulse of the communities that they serve by engaging in deliberative policy making which involves enacting a process where the decisions are made through thoughtful discussions and debate among diverse stakeholders who are impacted by the decision making the most. The Rainbow PUSH Coalition’s Saturday Morning Forums remain a viable avenue by which to accomplish the aforementioned goal.