"We advocate for equal educational opportunities and quality, integrated public education for all children to prepare them for the multicultural and multiracial realities of American life." —1991, General Synod Pronouncement, "Support of Quality, Integrated Education for All Children in Public Schools" 

As our nation becomes increasingly diverse, religiously, ethnically, and racially, how will public schools be prepared to serve children from diverse backgrounds?  How can the church be supportive of helping schools fully and openly welcome children, whatever their language and culture?  And how can the church help develop the political will for financial support for public schools that serve children from many cultures?  Resources from Justice and Witness Ministries will help your congregation explore these sometimes emotional issues.

Check out our page on Immigration and Public Education, which explores the implications of the Development Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act (DREAM) Act, which has been re-introduced in the Senate and House for years by a bi-partisan group of sponsors and also what happens to children in school when their parents are detained in workplace immigration raids.   

Whose Child Left Behind? Why? is the report of a UCC Public Education Task Force that visited schools in Cleveland, Ohio; Phoenix, Arizona; Hartford, Connecticut; and Wartburg, Tennessee between 2001 and 2005. The Task Force reported that, "how the school's culture and the child's culture are folded together matters." Study guide for this report is part of the 2006 Message on Public Education.

Experiencing Public Schools, A Process of Immersion and Discernment is a short study guide that will help your congregation set up, carry out and reflect on a visit to a public school in your community.  A focus of the UCC's Public Education Task Force, that prepared this guide, was consideration of the hidden curriculum at school—what every child in the school learns but nobody ever names.  These subtle messages often reflect on the identities, the cultures, and the languages of the students.

Repairing the Breach: Language and Culture at School was the cover story of the 2004 Message on Public Education.  It reports on a pre-Synod event sponsored by the UCC Public Education Task Force at General Synod XXIV, an event that featured James Banks, known as the Father of Multicultural Education.

Separate and Unequal is the report of a 1999-2000 public education task force appointed jointly by the American Missionary Association and the Commission for Racial Justice.  Language and culture at school are issues considered by this group.