By The Editors
A newly-published study states that, contrary to the conventional belief, students of color, and especially black students, are not favored more than whites in gaining grants and scholarships.

By Kenneth J. Cooper
A decade after the No Child Left Behind Act became law, the achievement gap still yawns as schools across the country reopen for a new year.

By Kenneth J. Cooper
Charter schools are moving into the suburbs, and one of the first in Illinois outside of a big city is near Chicago in a predominately black suburb, where the school’s presence has heightened class tensions and raised questions about educational equities.

The scholarships awarded by the Lehman Fund and the Warren Program have provided over $19 million in financial support to undergraduates and law students, making it possible for hundreds of highly qualified students to attend the nation’s most competitive colleges, universities and law schools.

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, along with a broad coalition of civil rights groups, education advocates, public rights groups, and others, sent a letter urging federal involvement in accountability through the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).
This letter marks the first time that such as broad assemblage of organizations has spoken in one voice on the need for a strong federal role in educational accountability, particularly for students of color.  The stand these groups have taken will set the tone for when Congress resumes the ESEA reauthorization debate after the August congressional recess.

Source: The Root
While some of the gridlock among policymakers today can be chalked up to principled differences in political philosophy, some political stalemates are the result of policies that defy common sense. This most often happens when politicians ignore basic realities in order to further their own ideologies. This behavior is frustrating in any instance but is particularly galling when the needs of kids are involved.

The ACLU, NAACP and NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) announced today that they oppose the Michigan Attorney General’s request to convene a special 16-judge panel to reconsider the court’s decision this month striking down Michigan’s Proposal 2.  The attorney general expressed his plans to request a rehearing by the full court of appeals today.

Today, the Council of State Governments released a new report that helps to raise awareness about the importance of dismantling the School-to-Prison Pipeline.  Entitled Breaking Schools’ Rules: A Statewide Study of How School Discipline Relates to Students’ Success and Juvenile Justice Involvement, the report is the most in-depth of its kind, examining the academic, disciplinary, and juvenile court records of nearly a million Texas secondary school students.  Sadly, it confirms the national trend that LDF has observed in its Dismantling the School-to-Prison Pipeline initiative:  educational inequity, excessive reliance upon harsh disciplinary practices, and extreme racial disparities in both.

By Kenneth J. Cooper
Though we never met in our youth, the governor and I were on the back side of the first wave of large numbers of black students to attend New England boarding schools, until then the predominant preserve of the sons and daughters of elite white families.

The leaders of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) and the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) have joined forces to oppose the “State and Local Funding Flexibility Act” – an education bill that would dismantle civil rights protections for poor students, students of color, English language learners and others.