The Special Role of the Courts in the Education Adequacy Movement

“How does an education advocate persuade a state Supreme Court to get into the Education Business?” was one of the questions candidly confronted by Hon. John. M. Greaney, Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, at the 2008 Quality Education Conference.

Justice Greaney established his reputation as a firm supporter of students’ constitutional right to an adequate education by signing on to the majority opinion in McDuffy v. Secretary of the Executive Office of Education (1995) and then again with his strong dissent in Hancock v. Driscoll (2005) – two landmark adequacy cases in Massachusetts. Justice Greaney insisted that the courts have a unique and special duty to ensure equal educational opportunity for all children, lamenting that despite much progress since McDuffy, in his own state of Massachusetts, this “unequivocal State constitutional command” has not yet been met fully.

Insisting that governors, departments of education, and Legislatures do care about education, Justice Greaney urged advocates and voters to make adequate educational opportunity a critical issue in the national election. He warned against a “citizen apathy” that would curtail educational reform.

Justice Greaney then spoke about the importance of court involvement in the adequacy movement. The courts, said Greaney, should and do care about education, and they should get involved “if there is a constitutional clause that leads the state to believe it is their obligation to provide an opportunity for education.” He insisted that the courts have special skills because they have judicial independence, meaning that they cannot be influenced by biases or interest groups, and they have good “truth finding mechanisms” to provide verdicts.

During the last segment of his speech, Justice Greaney spoke of the importance of court involvement during the remedy stage, after students’ basic constitutional rights are clarified. He outlined an approach he envisioned for Hancock had the case been resolved differently, with direction to implement a remedy. He pointed out the importance of collaboration between all interested parties, costing out studies, and periodic progress reports during the remedy stage, cementing the importance of the court’s role in education.

Justice Greaney concluded his speech by reporting that like his favorite country singer, Johnny Cash, he wears black “for the kids pushed out of school house doors.”

Prepared by Marcela Briceno, July 14, 2008