2008 Quality Education Conference Sets New Horizons for the Adequacy Movement

Brown v. Board of Education was a “first down” not a “touch down” in educational adequacy, insisted Dr. John Jackson, President of the Schott Foundation in Public Education” as he initiated the 2008 Quality Education Conference: Exploring New Horizons for Equal Educational Opportunity. Addressing over 120 litigators, policy-makers, and community organizers from 29 states and the District of Columbia, Jackson, in his keynote speech, proclaimed to the audience that “education reform is in our hands.”

Co-sponsored by the National ACCESS Network, the Education Law Center, and Education Voters, and supported by the Public Education Network and the Rural School and Community Trust, this year’s Quality Education Conference convened in Washington, D.C. on June 11 and 12, 2008. It featured the annual round up of the states, enhanced litigators' workshops, an overview of the state of adequacy movement, and a diverse range of breakout sessions, including a session on “Righting Rodriguez: Implications of a Federal Constitutional Right to Education.” The conference allowed for attorneys, advocates, educators, policymakers, and organizers from different backgrounds and states to share developments in their own states, to evaluate the status of the education adequacy movement on a national level, and to set an agenda for progress in policy and legal reforms.

Following Dr. Jackson’s keynote address, chosen participants gave a brief update of recent policy and legal developments in their states with regard to education funding, education reform, and community organizing. The annual roundup of the states was the first interactive session, followed by another motivational speech. Hon. John. M. Greaney, Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, spoke of the importance of court involvement in education reform during his luncheon address, after which the conference transitioned into the breakout discussions and the litigators’ workshops. Following the breakout sessions Conference participants re-convened for the last plenary session on promoting equity and adequacy in the presidential campaign.

On the following day, Michael A. Rebell, Executive Director of the National ACCESS Network, delivered his annual speech on the status of the education adequacy movement. He provided inspiration for the movement by reminding the audience that out of the 28 adequacy cases brought by plaintiffs, only eight have been lost - and seven of those eight have been lost essentially because “justiciability,” or separation of powers issues, which meant that the courts did not even review the basic evidence and claims. Subsequently, conference participants once again broke out into small group discussion sessions where there was ample room to share concerns and experiences.

The forum culminated after two exciting days of workshops and panels, with a renewed momentum to move the education adequacy movement forward.

Prepared by Marcela Briceno, July 14, 2008