By Sunita Sohrabji. Ethnic Media Services.
What constitutes a healthy learning environment for elementary school children? Will race-based admissions and President Joe Biden’s student debt relief plan survive Supreme Court scrutiny?
Education rights are under attack, especially for children of color and transgender students, a panel of panelists said, urging Congress and the courts to step in and ensure equal access to quality learning.
The panelists discussed several issues that are being challenged in the courts: whether race should be considered as one of several factors in college admissions; President Joe Biden's student debt forgiveness program; the book ban and the controversy surrounding the teaching of critical race theory. They also debated the inclusion of disabled students and the importance of early childhood education.
The administration’s student loan forgiveness program — which would provide debt relief to more than 40 million working- and middle-class Americans by forgiving up to $20,000 of debt — has been challenged by a coalition of Republican-led states, which claim it did not offer the required public period before scheduling the program to be implemented. Lower courts have ruled in favor of the states and issued an injunction for its implementation. The Supreme Court is expected to hear oral arguments in the case this February.
Student debt relief is essential
“The COVID-19 pandemic was an unprecedented health, social, and economic crisis. The Biden Harris Administration’s student debt relief plan is an urgently needed moral and legal response,” said Genevieve “Genzie” Bonadies Torres, Associate Director of the Educational Opportunity Project at the Lawyers’ Committee on Civil Rights Under Law at the January 18 briefing hosted by Ethnic Media Services.
“Without this relief, millions of borrowers would be pushed over the financial edge when student loan repayments resume. And among them are millions of borrowers of color who we know have been hardest hit by the pandemic. This expected rise in delinquencies would weaken the credit of millions of borrowers, blocking their ability to pay for basic needs and preventing them from securing affordable housing, among other adverse consequences,” she said.
Nearly 50 percent of Latino borrowers and 25 percent of Black borrowers could see all of their student debt wiped out under Biden’s plan, Torres said. Students of color have about one-fifth the generational wealth of their white counterparts and are therefore forced to take on more student loans, he said.
Race-Based College Admissions
The Supreme Court is also expected to rule on race-based admissions this June. Students for Fair Admissions has filed two lawsuits, one against Harvard and one against the University of North Carolina.
Chief Justice John Roberts, Thomas and Justice Samuel Alito dissented in a similar case in 2016. Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch are also expected to rule against race-based admissions.
"We're not talking about quotas. What we're talking about is the limited consideration of race as one of 40 factors in the UNC case and one of more than 100 factors in the Harvard case," said Michaele Turnage Young, senior counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.
“All students deserve a fair chance at a quality education, regardless of their income, where they grew up, or their racial or ethnic background,” said Turnage Young. “But unfortunately, while talent is everywhere in our country, opportunity is not. Too many students of color must contend with systemic and interpersonal racism that negatively impacts their educational opportunities.”
Inclusive school environments
“It is important that colleges and universities continue to be allowed to take into account the full context of applicants’ experiences, including how racism artificially depresses the prospects of many underserved, hard-working and talented Black, Latino, Native and Asian American students, so that everyone has a fair chance,” she said.
Panelists also discussed what constitutes a healthy school environment.
“We know that education policy decisions must be informed by the values, priorities and experiences of marginalized people,” said Liz King, Director of the Educational Equity Program at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
Leave your identity at the door?
“For too long, people of color, Native Americans, LGBTQ people with disabilities, immigrants, religious minorities, English learners, girls, low-income people, and other marginalized people have had their stories told by someone else. They have been denied the opportunity to attend a school that is warm, welcoming, and prepares them for the full exercise of their social, political, and economic rights,” said King, who moderated the Jan. 18 debate.
"No one should be asked to leave part of their identity at the door. Everyone should see themselves and their communities reflected in the curriculum and educational practices," said Morgan Craven, national director of Policy, Advocacy and Community Engagement for the Intercultural Development Research Association.
Critical Race Theory
Craven spoke about censorship in classrooms, systematically marginalized students and communities, and the challenges facing schools' diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
Fifty years of research in education policy and teacher education have taught us that culturally sustainable schools—places where all students feel welcome—are critical to student success.
Several states have banned the teaching of critical race theory, including: Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, and Tennessee. Seventeen other states have bills in the pipeline to ban critical race theory, broadly defined as the teaching of systemic racism at all levels of society, from housing to employment to health care.
Craven’s remarks came ahead of the news: One day after the briefing, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis banned an advanced course teaching African American history statewide. Florida is not alone: Between July 2021 and June 2022, according to PEN America, Texas school districts banned 801 books in 22 school districts — the most of any U.S. state. Most of the banned books focused on racial history and sexual identity. Craven said he expected to see more such activity this year.
Restriction and isolation
AJ Link, a policy analyst at the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, pointed out the threats to disabled, nonbinary and students of color in schools. He outlined eight principles for creating healthy school environments, including addressing childhood trauma, improving protections against bullying and discrimination in schools, and removing enforcement from schools.
Link referred to restraint and seclusion practices: police handcuffing a child who is simply having a tantrum, or teachers seating students who misbehave. Restraint and seclusion tactics are disproportionately used on marginalized students, she said.
“I really hope that we start seeing children as children, rather than as threats to be feared. And that we support and invest in our children in a loving, caring and supportive way, rather than acting as if being a child automatically means some kind of criminal activity,” she said.
Early childhood education
Whitney Pesek, director of Federal Child Care Policy at the National Women's Law Center, spoke about the importance of early childhood education and expanding programs for low-income families to access.
“For the early education and care sector, the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed and exacerbated the deep inequities of a system that relies on families paying unaffordable fees, early educators receiving poverty wages, and too many communities across the country lacking sufficient staff or facilities to meet the demand for early education and care,” Pesek said.
She noted that in more than half the country, child care and early childhood education cost more than going to college. And many families pay more for ECE than they do for rent.
Furthermore, there are few subsidies. Rural families live in EPI deserts, with an insufficient supply of licensed childcare facilities.
“Children under five are the most diverse generation in American history, so investing in high-quality, affordable care and education also supports racial equity,” Pesek said. “It is a racial and gender justice imperative to address these deep inequities in the U.S. early care and education system,” she said, calling for strong investment at the federal level.
You may be interested in: Bullying: a battle to win from childhood with education
