Educational Equality Advocates Address Students, Harlem Residents

Only 50 percent of children in low-income communities—half of 13 million children nationwide—will graduate high school. This statistic was pondered at an event last night featuring Michael Rebell, an education law professor at Teachers College, and Wendy Kopp, president and founder of Teach For America.

The event focused specifically on educational injustices faced by low-income minority students in America today.

“Minority students by and large grow up in situations of poverty. As school goes on, they are not able to get out of it,” Rebell said.

Rebell served as the co-counsel for parents, teachers, students, and community activists, who together were the plaintiffs in the lawsuit Campaign for Fiscal Equity Inc. v. State of New York. The 14-year court case that challenged the state’s education finance system eventually reached the Court of Appeals and resulted in an order to the state to give the city at least $1.93 billion in school funding. This funding requirement was enacted on April 1, 2007.

“Without people who are willing to help others, all the money in the world isn’t going to make a difference,” said Rebell.

Meredith Boak, recruitment director of Teach For America, explained how a national core of 5,000 members commit two years to teaching in the nation’s neediest urban and rural public schools.

“I think it is very easy in college to intellectualize the situation, look at the numbers, and not take action,” said Boak, a Columbia alum. “Through my education at Columbia I learned to think critically about the circumstances that surround me, but through my two years of service I learned how to take my knowledge and put it into action.”

Local neighborhood residents also voiced their opinions. “You are in a place where so many amazing things are happening and I hope you can get up from your seats and realize what is around you and be a part of it,” said Cara Volpe, a teacher from a charter school on 123rd Street.

At the end of the speeches, Columbia students asked how they could participate in the movement to end educational inequality. “Many people think that this problem is intractable because they believe that the kids and parents don’t care,” said Kopp. “It is possible, but among all of the things that need to happen, extraordinary leadership remains at the top.”

Brooke Mazurek can be reached at news@columbiaspectator.com.