Advancing Civics Education Promoting a Pipeline to Law School
change, and the meaning and importance of the rule of law to ensure the vitality of our democracy. To help address the increas- ing disparities in civics instruction in New York City schools, the center is working on a pilot civics education and pipeline to law school initiative for middle school students. To inform the parameters of this initiative, the center is engaged in discussions with leading scholars, educators, and directors of civics programs, coordinating with partners, including Fordham University’s Center for Educational Partnerships at the Graduate School of Education in partnership with Community Middle School 331, and the Justice Resource Center, to facilitate in- troductions to administrators and teachers in under-resourced middle schools. The center will undertake an effort to recruit law students—and perhaps—other volunteers, such as alum- ni—who will Zoom into a classroom to present a civics lesson by amplifying a legal issue or explaining a constitutional principle or facilitating a participatory civics activity, such as a debate, mock election or a letter-writing campaign on a community issue. These efforts will infuse students with a sense of agency and expose them to law students and lawyers who will share their pathways to law school and the legal profession and serve as role models. Through this program, the Feerick Center hopes to introduce students to enrichment programs that will expand access to higher education and law school, strengthening the pipeline for under-represented individuals in the legal profession. The Feerick Center anticipates that the impact of this civics edu- cation pipeline initiative will elevate civics education in under-re- sourced middle schools and enhance students’ understanding of their civic role in democratic society and inspire them to be change agents.
The vitality of a democracy is dependent upon active participation from a broad spectrum of its population. Fundamental to active engagement is the understanding of individual rights and respon- sibilities from an early age. For nearly a half a century, lawyers, scholars and advocates have endeavored to pin civics instruction to a fundamental right, reasoning that educational inequality might rise to the level of a constitutional violation if it prevented students from exercis- ing their freedom of speech and right to vote. ( See San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez, 411 U.S. 1, 77-78 (1973) (Powell, J. (5-4))(Marshall, J., dissenting)(this case generated a flurry of state court challenges based on educational inequities caused by school funding tied to property taxes, as well as federal actions that allege equal access to quality education is guaranteed by the constitution.) As our society confronts the challenging issues rooted in systemic injustices and the pandemic shapes access to the ballot in the 2020 election, it is our individual rights — to free speech, to assemble, and to vote — that empower us to effectuate change. This underscores the significance of access to education and the urgent need for a robust civics curriculum for all students. Reductions in New York City’s education budget in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic have resulted in the elimination of virtually all spending on civics instruction, which will dispropor- tionately impact low-income students, often from communities of color. It is imperative that students understand their constitution- al rights and civic responsibilities, the democratic levers of social
A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it is but a prologue to Farce or Tragedy or perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own Governors must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives.
I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but inform their discretion.
FromThomas Jefferson to William Charles Jarvis, September 28, 1820 Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/ Jefferson/98-01-02-1540.
From James Madison to W.T. Barry, August 4, 1822 Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/mjm018999.
34 | Feerick Center for Social Justice Biennial Report 2018–2020
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