The Spirit Of Concord
The town of Concord, Mass., 16 miles west of Boston, is commonly viewed as a prosperous, privileged New England suburb, far from the economic suffering and racial turmoil of our troubled inner cities. That is certainly how the town appears in the 1993 court case that overturned Massachusetts' system of financing public schools. In the documentation of educational inequities that was submitted to the state's highest court, Concord, along with Brookline and Wellesley, constitutes the model of a fortunate community, blessed with splendid facilities, rich curricula, excellent teachers, and an ample budget to fund them all. Set against Concord's example, the circumstances of students in hard-pressed cities like Brockton and Lowell looked so "bleak" to the justices of the Supreme Judicial Court that they ruled the current provisions for public education unconstitutional. The high court found commonwealth officials to be derelict in their duty to assure an adequate education in every public school.
Massachusetts is just one of the 14 states in the nation whose public school systems have been declared illegal by the courts. In July, New Jersey renewed its membership in this elect but growing club. In August, Arizona signed up. Similar cases are now pending in 10 other states.
Given the prominent place of the town of Concord in the Massachusetts court ruling, it may come as something of a surprise to learn that this historic community, where Emerson and Thoreau lived and wrote, once championed the cause of equal educational opportunity for all. Back in the mid-19th century, the townspeople launched a campaign for public education that propelled them into the front ranks of the state, the place they still occupy today. That movement involved issues at the heart of current educational debates. At the very moment that Concord was reforming the curriculum, raising standards for teachers, and increasing spending for schools, it wrestled with a familiar problem: the existence of significant economic disparities among the several districts of the town. The answer it devised expressed a civic consciousness Americans would...
This article is available to subscribers only.
To keep reading this article and more, subscribe now or purchase this article.
Subscribe to Education Week and Save
Get a full year and save up to 45%!
Viewed
Emailed
Recommended
Commented
- Project Manager- (Hawaii)
- Pearson Education, HI
- Chief Academic Officer
- Adams 14, Commerce City, CO
- Program Coordinator
- Institute for Educational Advancement, South Pasadena, CA
- Elementary School Teacher
- Success Academy Charter Schools, New York, NY
- Superintendent
- Pinellas County Schools, Pinellas County, FL
