A Federal Right to Education: Fundamental Questions for Our Democracy. Edited by Kimberly Jenkins Robinson. (New York University Press, 2019).
The Declaration of Independence boldly states that all citizens are entitled to certain unalienable rights, such as “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Almost 250 years later, though, it remains unclear (and unresolved by the Supreme Court) whether those rights include education. In this book, Jenkins Robinson brings together a range of scholars to breathe new life into arguments around education equity, exploring the appropriate role of the federal government to ensure a quality education for all young people, and offering a path forward for a democracy starving for a serious commitment to strong public schools. My students have appreciated the opportunities this book presents to poke holes in various court decisions and explore how a federal right to education might be conceptualized in a time of growing inequality. It’s strange that we still have to debate the significance of an institution — our public school system — that plays such a foundational role in American life. Eventually, the courts will determine that the health of our democracy requires a guaranteed federal right to education, and then the real work will begin.
Joseph Bishop’s recent Kappan article:
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Joseph Bishop
JOSEPH BISHOP is the director of the Center for the Transformation of Schools in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles.
