A growing alliance of grassroots organizations have successfully petitioned the US Department of Education to convene a public hearing on the rippling impacts of large numbers of school closings and turnaround schools on civil rights, communities, families, and students across the nation. Students, parents, and advocacy representatives from eighteen, major US cities have united as part of a Journey for Justice action that calls on the US Department of Education to end school closings, highlighting inequitable impacts upon predominately low-income, minority students. Students, parents, and advocacy representatives from multiple, major United States cities will testify at a hearing before the U.S. Department of Education in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, January 22, 2013.
Destabilization complaints
More than 10 cities have filed, or are in the process of filing, Title VI Civil Rights complaints with the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights, citing the closing of schools and the criteria and methods for administering those actions as discriminatory toward low-income, minority communities. Representatives from 11 cities will testify at the hearing on the impact of school closings including the civil rights violations and the destabilization of their children and communities resulting from the criteria used for school closings and the current accepted movement to privatize schools.
The “Journey for Justice” and “Save Our Schools” groups are making specific demands. These include:
- a moratorium on school closings until a new process can be implemented nationally
- the implementation of a sustainable, community-driven school improvement process as national policy
- a meeting with President Obama so that he may hear directly from his constituents about the devastating impact and civil rights violation
Involvement from major cities
The hearing will be followed by a procession and candlelight vigil at the Martin Luther King Memorial. Involved in the hearing and the march are individuals representing 18 cities across the country including:
- Atlanta, Georgia
- Baltimore, Maryland
- Boston, Massachusetts
- Chicago, Illinois
- Cleveland, Ohio
- Detroit, Michigan
- District of Columbia
- Eupora, Mississippi
- Hartford, Connecticut
- Kansas City, Missouri
- Los Angeles, California
- Newark, New Jersey
- New Orleans, Louisiana
- New York City, New York
- Oakland, California
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Wichita, Kansas
- Wilmington, Delaware
When and where
The hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, January 29th, 2013 at 2:00 p.m.- 3:55 p.m. EST in the U.S. Department of Education Auditorium in Washington, D.C., and the march and vigil is scheduled for Tuesday, January 29th, 2013 at 5:00 p.m. EST at the Martin Luther King Memorial in Washington, D.C. Further specifics are available online.
Equity
As the nation seeks to provide equity to its learners, the most successful, local and national actions will require innovation, careful evaluation, and community involvement. A status quo of inequity cannot stand. Grassroots organizations are arising to ensure evolving changes do not bring displacement and destabilization of children. Concern heightens as cities across the country experience the closing of schools, many that serve predominantly low-income students of color. Ensuring the continuity and equity in the nation’s public education system holds both local and national issues that education’s stakeholders know are vital. The nation’s 21st century policies and strategies for the education of its children impact, long term, America’s economic recovery, growth, and well-being.
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