Per the below, here’s Citizens’ Commission on Civil Rights head William Taylor on the lawsuit from his press statement today. Third graf’s the killer and a good indication of the level of indignation today from some key folks on the left. The question is of course, will they go public?
The NEA’s lawsuit contains no recognition whatsoever of the obligation of state and local governments to provide a decent and adequate public education for their children. One can search the 60-page complaint in vain for any statement that the costs of providing highly qualified teachers or small class sizes or other crucial resources should be borne by anyone other than the federal government.
Nor does the NEA acknowledge that states are shortchanging poor children by distributing tax revenues disproportionately to wealthy districts. The Illinois State Education Association, one of the plaintiffs, should be ashamed to be attacking the federal government for not giving enough when the State of Illinois spends several hundred dollars more per child on wealthy students than on those who are poor…
…Finally we must note the cruel irony of the NEA’s filing a suit where the lead plaintiff is the school district of Pontiac, Michigan. In 1971, right wing organizations responded to a court order calling for the desegregation of the public schools by dynamiting ten school buses. The federal courts of course had not provided any money for Pontiac to carry out its duties. So today we are hearing that improving education for the minority and poor children of Pontiac should be excused because it is an underfunded federal mandate.
Good luck to those entering. You can