You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind." This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." - Matthew 22: 35-39

The Church Speaks to Public Education Justice

As we think about whether American society embodies Jesus' teaching that we should love our neighbors as ourselves, we need to be concerned about public schools, the primary institution where we have agreed to nurture and shape God's precious children. Public schools are our largest public institution, serving nearly fifty million children.

In the national conversation about public education, our role in the church is special. We are concerned about our schools as an ethical and public policy matter. How do they embody attitudes about race and poverty, power and privilege, and cultural dominance and marginalization, and how do disparities in public investment reflect these attitudes?

The United Church of Christ has spoken prophetically to name poverty and racism as among the primary causes of injustice in our nation's schools.  General Synod 15 warned: "While children from many areas have comfortable schools with all the educational trimmings, poor and ethnic minority children often face overcrowded and deteriorated facilities, and a lack of enrichment programs or modern technology." General Synod 18 cautioned: "Because the poor and their children are disproportionately people of color, the educational inequities in our public schools reinforce the racial/ethnic injustices of our society." General Synod 23 proclaimed public school support - and advocacy for the same - as one of the "foremost civil rights issues in the twenty-first century." General Synod 25 called all settings of the UCC to do justice and promote the common good by strengthening support for public institutions and providing "opportunity for every child in well-funded, high quality public schools."  

News and Key Articles ...

Standardized testing pressure has led to cheating scandals.  

March 25, 2013: What Will the Sequester Mean for Public Education?

March 13, 2013: Reuters reports, Waiting for Recovery: U.S. Public Schools Continue to Lose Jobs.

March 13, 2015:  Here is a short video and article from the Education Opportunity Network about the "Parent Trigger" takeover of a public school in Adelanto, California and the problems the takeover caused for the children and the community: The Disempowerment of Public School Parents.

February 15, 2013: Here is a ground breaking expose from Reuters on use of selection screens in a number of charter schools in locations across the United States. A must read for those concerned that public school reform today seems aimed at those with high motivation or more advanced skills and fails to serve the most vulnerable children.

Important New Books   Check here for reviews of books you may be curious about.

Resources from the UCC Justice & Witness Ministries

NEW in March, 2013: Here are the UCC's 2013 succinct, updated talking points to help faithful advocates reflect on and speak to what needs to happen today in public school reform.

Want to learn more about federal policies that create incentives for states to close public schools in the poorest neighborhoods, privatize schools, and punish school teachers?  Check out our web page on Punitive Federal Policy.

Here is our web page on Child Poverty and Inequality... and Budget Cuts at State and Federal Levels.

January 7, 2013:  Historically the Title I formula has been a primary tool for equalizing educational opportunity as a civil right for every child. But that is changing.  Specifically the U.S. Department of Education is transforming Title I—the federal civil rights program created in 1965 as the centerpiece of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act—from a formula program driving additional funds to schools serving a large number or high concentration of very poor children into a grant competition by which the U.S. Department of Education rewards what it calls innovation.  Read about this in a new Witness for Justice column: A System Where Every Poor Child Is a Winner.

December 10, 2012:  Is the American Dream a reality for children today or only an American Fantasy?

The UCC Justice & Witness Ministries 2013 Message on Public Education:The Public Purpose of Public Education, examines what those who have thought seriously about the public nature of public education have expected the institution to accomplish and whether today's myriad attempts to privatize what our society has valued as the foundation of our democracy can produce a better outcome. 

And here is a short companion piece to help you speak with your representatives to address the real issues that are too seldom part of our political discourse:  Repairing the Breach: A Just Agenda for Public School Reform—Questions for Federal & State Public Officials. It provides background on public education policy from the perspective of faith and justice and then on the second page, questions for occasions when there is an opportunity to talk with state or federal representatives.

Two recent Witness for Justice columns explore important concerns in public education.  On the need to stop blaming teachers and to require well-credentialed teachers, read the column from June 25, 2012,  Let Them Eat Tests.  And here is a column from April 2012:  Too Much Test-and-Punish.

Last year's  Message on Public Education, "Why the Conventional Wisdom on School Reform is Wrong and Why the Church Should Care,"  explores the role of poverty to challenge school attainment remains very timely in the fall of 2012.

2012:  Education and the Wealth Gap is an an interview published in Sojourners’ September-October 2012 issue about the United Church of Christ’s work over the years to support justice in public education along with our work today.

From Our Partners

The National Council of Churches Committee on Public Education and Literacy has produced a series of excellent resources for use by members of the Council's many congregations and justice advocates.  Resources are also available through the NCC's Poverty Initiative.

The National Opportunity to Learn Campaign is a group of civil rights partners advocating for justice when Congress reauthorizes the federal education law.

UCC Resource Archive 

 Annual Messages on Public Education

 Witness for Justice Columns