Sign the petition! on removal of the “anti-busing rider” from the 2018 Appropriations Bill. On Tuesday the National Coalition on School Diversity launched an online petition and call campaign asking Congress to strike Sections 301 and 302 from the House and Senate appropriations bills and we need your help! NCSD and other civil rights advocacy groups sent letters to leaders in the Senate and the House, urging the removal of language from the 2018 appropriations legislation that prohibits federal funding from being used to pay for the transportation of students participating in integration programs, but we have to do more. Sign the petition here and you can also help by sharing the petition on social media. The appropriations language has been present since at least 1974, when racist, anti-integration backlash reached a fever pitch. These ugly relics of the past both undermine the updated Magnet Schools Assistance Program and stymie state innovation and local control of school improvement efforts under the Every Student Succeeds Act.
OCA v Carson : New developments this week – plaintiffs filed their reply brief in this case challenging the unlawful suspension of the Small Area FMR rule in 23 metro areas with high levels of Housing Choice Voucher concentration, and HUD published a notice in the Federal Register seeking comments on whether to suspend the rule it already suspended in August.
PHA “service areas”: We joined the National Housing Law Project on a letter to HUD on its collection of data on the areas of operation for public housing agencies across the U.S. This survey could provide an encyclopedic view of how absurdly fragmented our low income housing delivery system has become – but we hope that it also highlights innovative ways that PHAs can work together across jurisdictional lines to enhance resident choice and integration.
This Saturday — “Together We Run” event to benefit PRRAC: A student group out of the University of Virginia is hosting a series of run-a-thons over winter break to raise money for racial justice organizations in the South, as a response to recent events in Charlottesville. Pledges from their DC run-a-thon, which will be held at Hains Point from 9AM to 12PM, will benefit PRRAC! Here are three ways you can support this student-led effort: 1) join the event; 2) pledge a runner; 3) invite your friends.
We’re inspired by the Together We Run story and honored to have been selected.
Other Resources (and jobs)
A Snapshot Of Magnet Schools In America: Our friends at Magnet Schools of America have put out a new report that attempts to count all the magnet schools in the US (by MSA’s count, that is 4,340 magnet schools serving nearly 3.5 million students. Their state by state comparison is particularly interesting – see the report here.
Implicit bias and school discipline: The NAACP Legal Defense Fund has published an important social-science informed report explaining how implicit bias contributes to disparities in school discipline, and how schools can improve. Read the report here.
School discipline and disability: Our board member Anurima Bhargava and other colleagues participated in a briefing last week at the United States Commission on Civil Rights on The School-to-Prison Pipeline: The Intersections of Students of Color with Disabilities – you can watch here.
Interesting communications job and good idea: The National Housing Trust is hiring a Media Campaign Organizer to help mobilize and lift the voices of low-income residents of affordable housing to make the case for federal housing resources.
Openings for Executive Directors at Georgia Legal Services Program and Texas Legal Services Center posted here.
