January, 31 2013, 02:39pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Email:,press@lawyerscommittee.org
Lawyers' Committee Statement on National School Choice Week
As National School Choice Week continues this week (January 27 to Feb 3, 2013), the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (Lawyers' Committee) reminds the nation that the use of private school vouchers does not equate to actual school choice. Furthermore, we must be mindful of the civil rights implications of private school vouchers and their fundamental inability to create true equity within schools.
WASHINGTON
As National School Choice Week continues this week (January 27 to Feb 3, 2013), the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (Lawyers' Committee) reminds the nation that the use of private school vouchers does not equate to actual school choice. Furthermore, we must be mindful of the civil rights implications of private school vouchers and their fundamental inability to create true equity within schools.
Although supporters of National School Choice Week state that that school choice through the use of vouchers and charters "gives families the power to choose the best schools for their children-helping children to improve educational outcomes and increasing overall parental satisfaction" (Heritage Foundation), this statement is oversimplified and does not accurately reflect the reality faced by most students in the public school system. Those that support using federally funds to privatize our school system believe that doing so will improve educational quality and efficiency in public schools as they compete to attract the best students, much like businesses. Unlike a business, however, our public school system must accept ALL students, not simply those who are fortunate enough to be accepted. The nation's public school system was created as the great equalizer. Yet, applying a business model based on competition and profit-seeking to our schools leads to inequitable outcomes for students, which is antithetical to the concept of "equitable educational opportunity." The Lawyers' Committee believes all children should be given equal access to a quality education, and we are committed to the principles of equality embodied in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision.
Federally funding private school vouchers creates problems and sets a dangerous precedent. In Washington D.C., for example, the voucher program has primarily led to the redirecting of funds through the shifting of certain students to private schools, thus leaving most students behind in underfunded public schools. Because voucher programs frequently cannot meet the needs of students with disabilities, low-income students, and English Language Learners (ELLs), many students are often forced to reject their vouchers because private schools may not have the resources to accommodate their special needs. Services such as subsidized breakfast and lunch, counseling, transportation and even free extra-curricular activities are not required or always offered at private schools. Thus, instead of focusing on uplifting the opportunities for ALL students, such selective funding encourages the abandonment of the vast majority of students in underfunded public schools.
Further, as more money is funneled to the private sector through vouchers and charter schools, parents across the nation are seeing the dire effects of such inequitable funding. For example, D.C. public schools are experiencing an increase in school closures, as community members cry foul (Washington Post). Rather than help close the achievement gap and provide all students equal opportunities, private school voucher programs leave our most vulnerable children behind. This is not only in D.C. Community activists from more than 15 cities across the country met with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to voice their complaints about school closings that disproportionately affected Black and Hispanic students, and students with disabilities (New York Times).
Additionally, while public charter schools serve a purpose, they cannot supplant the public school model that was created to serve all students. Even more alarming, national trends show that charter schools are reinforcing segregation. According to a 2010 report by the UCLA Civil Rights Project , 70 percent of Black charter school students are enrolled in highly segregated schools, twice as many as their Black peers in traditional schools.
Federally funded private school voucher programs violate the promise of equality laid out in the seminal Brown decision. They are economically burdensome, divert valuable dollars from the public school system and increase taxpayer burden by financing two school systems, one private and one public. Instead of funneling money to private schools that are not accountable in their student achievement outcomes, teacher quality and even the application of civil rights law, that money should be invested in immediately better equipping and reforming the public education system.
The Lawyers' Committee believes in creating equal opportunities for all students, which includes ensuring that our children are all given the same protections and equal access to a free, quality education. During National School Choice Week, let us also remember that race, income, language, religion, or disability should not restrict one's educational opportunities, and that education "where the state has undertaken to provide it, is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms."[1] By increasing teacher quality, access to learning materials, and administrative support in public schools, we can create the opportunity for an excellent education for every child in the United States.
The Lawyers' Committee is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, formed in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy to enlist the private bar's leadership and resources in combating racial discrimination and the resulting inequality of opportunity - work that continues to be vital today.
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'Disturbing': Intel Chair Used Schumer Protests to Push Warrantless Spying
"If any lawmakers were still on the fence and waiting for a smoking gun, THIS IS IT," said one advocate of reforming Section 702.
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Privacy advocates issued fresh calls for changes to a historically abused U.S. spying program on Tuesday after Wiredreported that a top Republican congressman privately tried using peaceful protests as proof of the need to block long-demanded reforms.
"If you care about the First Amendment, please stop everything and read this Wired article," Elizabeth Goitein, senior director of the Brennan Center for Justice's Liberty & National Security Program, said on social media, sharing the piece.
Wired's Dell Cameron obtained a pair of presentation slides and spoke with multiple GOP staffers who attended a December 11 meeting with Rep. Mike Turner, the Ohio Republican who chairs the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI).
"This is ice in the heart of our democracy."
The meeting was about competing legislation to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which allows warrantless surveillance targeting noncitizens located outside the United States to acquire foreign intelligence information, but also sweeps up Americans' data—and has been misused, particularly by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. One of the bills would require the FBI to get a warrant before accessing U.S. citizens' communications.
Turner—who opposes the bill with that and other reforms—reportedly displayed the slides about 15 minutes into the meeting, which latest over an hour. The first shows a photo of opponents of Israel's genocidal U.S.-backed war on the Gaza Strip protesting outside the Brooklyn residence of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). It does not note that the October 13 action was organized by Jewish Voice for Peace.
The second slide features a social media post from Washington Free Beacon staff writer Matthew Foldi that contains misinformation suggesting Hamas—which governs Gaza and is designated as a terrorist group by the U.S. government—was tied to a November demonstration at the Democratic leader's residence. The slides do not make clear that they were different events.
"At the outset of the presentation, he's running through slides, making his case for why 702 reauthorization is needed," one senior Republican aide told Wired about Turner's presentation. "Then he throws up that photo. The framing was: 'Here are protesters outside of Chuck Schumer's house. We need to be able to use 702 to query these people.'"
As Cameron detailed:
Jeff Naft, the HPSCI spokesperson, says the purpose of the slides was to illustrate that, even if the protesters did have ties to Hamas, they would "not be subject to surveillance" under the 702 program. "702 is not used to target protestors," he says. "702 is used on foreign terrorist organizations, like Hamas. Chairman Turner's presentation was a distinction exercise to explain the difference between a U.S. person and Hamas."
Wired's sources, who are not authorized to discuss closed-door briefings and requested anonymity to do so, describe this as a conflation of two separate issues—a tactic, they say, that has become commonplace in the debate over the program's future. "Yes, it's true, you cannot 'target' protesters under 702," one aide, a legislative director for a Republican lawmaker, says. "But that doesn't mean the FBI doesn't still have the power to access those emails or listen to their calls if it wants."
In response to Wired's reporting, Goitein—who was quoted in the piece—said on social media that "if any lawmakers were still on the fence and waiting for a smoking gun, THIS IS IT. Turner has made the stakes crystal clear. A vote to reauthorize Section 702 without a warrant requirement is a vote to allow the FBI to keep tabs on protesters exercising [First Amendment] rights."
"HPSCI leaders are reportedly trying to persuade congressional leaders to slip a Section 702 reauthorization into one of the upcoming funding bills," she pointed out. "Lawmakers must be given the opportunity to vote on Section 702 reforms, including a warrant requirement and other critical protections for Americans' civil liberties. Our First Amendment rights depend on it."
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) abruptly delayed action on Section 702 last month after Turner announced that the HPSCI had provided members of Congress with "information concerning a serious national security threat," which news outlets reported was that Russia has made alarming progress on a space-based nuclear weapon designed to target U.S. satellites. Critics called it a ploy by the chair to force through the spying program and demanded his immediate resignation.
Among the groups that pressured Turner to step down last month was Demand Progress, a longtime supporter of Section 702 reforms whose policy director, Sean Vitka, was also quoted in Wired's piece and issued a statement about the "disturbing" revelations.
"This is ice in the heart of our democracy," Vitka said. "Americans' right to protest is sacred, and all the more critical given the political volatility 2024 is certain to produce. As intelligence agencies and congressional intelligence committees mislead the public about what's at stake in this fight for privacy, Chairman Turner has been secretly selling his colleagues on backdoor searches of Americans as a way to help the FBI spy on protesters without so much as a court order."
Calling for "a forceful response" from Schumer, Johnson, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), he argued that "Congress must stop letting the House Intelligence Committee dictate its agenda by secretly vetoing any meaningful reform. In the coming weeks, Congress has the opportunity to enact meaningful privacy protections that would protect protesters and all people in the United States from warrantless surveillance, specifically by closing the backdoor search and data broker loopholes."
Jeramie Scott, senior counsel and director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, also weighed in on the reporting.
"Americans exercising their constitutional right to protest have a right to be free from warrantless surveillance. There should be no suggestion that foreign intelligence authorities can be used to target protestors; that would be counter to our core American values," Scott said. "This discussion is one more example of why Congress must pass a warrant requirement to ensure that these searches are not subject to abuse."
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The New York Civil Liberties Union and Palestine Legal on Tuesday filed a lawsuit on behalf of members of two pro-Palestine student groups at Columbia University which avocates say were illegally suspended for engaging in peaceful protests and other events protected under the First Amendment.
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"Universities should be havens for robust debate, discussion, and learning—not sites of censorship where administrators, donors, and politicians squash political discourse they don't approve of," NYCLU executive director Donna Lieberman said in a statement.
"These student groups were peacefully speaking out on a critical global conflict, only to have Columbia University ignore their own longstanding, existing rules and abruptly suspend the organizations," Lieberman added. "That's retaliatory, it's targeted, and it flies in the face of the free speech principles that institutes of higher learning should be defending. Students protesting at private colleges still have the right to fair, equal treatment—and we are ready to fight that battle in court."
Maryam Alwan, an organizer with Columbia's SJP chapter, said that "Ivy League institutions should not attract students who value justice and equality if they do not want to be held accountable for the ideals that they claim to uphold."
"As a Palestinian American student, I should have the same right to speak out on my campus as everyone else—and no amount of targeted policy changes or illegitimate suspensions will prevent us from advocating for the Palestinian people," Alwan added.
Cameron Jones, a JVP organizer at the school, argued that "Columbia must protect all Jewish students and voices, not just those adhering to a specific political belief."
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The Columbia suspensions came amid a nationwide campus crackdown on criticizing Israel or advocating for Palestinian rights. Some students have fought back. In November, the University of Florida SJP chapter sued state education officials and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis over their move to deactivate the group over its support for Palestinians' legally enshrined right to resist Israeli occupation, apartheid, and other crimes.
Conversely, five Jewish students and two organizations last month sued Columbia and Barnard College alleging "particularly severe and pervasive" campus antisemitism, while a Jewish student at Columbia's School of Social Work filed a separate discrimination lawsuit last month.
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The protesters, who are members of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) Action, prominently displayed a sign reading, "AIPAC gave $829,835 to Hakeem Jeffries, who opposes cease-fire," before proceeding to the New York Democrat's office.
The sign referred to AIPAC's contributions to Jeffries throughout his career.
"Our Jewish communities are rising up to say, 'Never again is now,'" said JVP Action. "We refuse to be bystanders as the Israeli government wages a genocidal campaign in our name and funding by U.S. tax dollars."
At the sit-in, the organizers held signs saying, "AIPAC funds genocide" and, "Jeffries: Reject AIPAC."
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