State school integration legislation: Originally developed for the National Coalition on School Diversity’s postponed national conference, Model State School Integration Policies provides concrete legislative language for advocates seeking to address the growing economic and racial divides in our nation’s schools. We can do better in the 2020s!
Housing mobility on Long Island: The Community Development Corporation of Long Island (CDCLI) was recently selected to administer the new housing mobility program on Long Island, through a grant from Enterprise Community Partners, using funding obtained by the NY State Attorney General’s office. Long Island has a highly fragmented and segregated public school system, with 124 separate school districts in two counties, and we are hopeful that this new program will give Housing Choice Voucher families with children expanded educational opportunities when New York State schools reopen. Mobility Works is partnering with Enterprise on its NY State housing mobility project.
The National Coalition on School Diversity’s planned conference keynote presentation has gone virtual and will take place a few days before the 66th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education. It will feature the following authors and weave together information and concepts from three phenomenal books: The Lost Education of Horace Tate: Uncovering the Hidden Heroes Who Fought for Justice in Schools (by Vanessa Siddle Walker), We Live for the We: The Political Power of Black Motherhood (by Dani McClain), and Mothers of Massive Resistance: White Women and the Politics of White Supremacy (by Elizabeth McRae). Join NCSD on 5/14 at 2 pm EST. RSVP here.
Other news and resources
Environmental justice advances in Virginia: Congratulations to advocates in Virginia, who have won a major victory with the passage of a state law declaring that “it is the policy of the Commonwealth to promote environmental justice and ensure that it is carried out throughout the Commonwealth, with a focus on environmental justice communities and fenceline communities,” and the establishment of an Interagency Environmental Justice Working Group empowered to review EJ practices across all state agencies and make recommendations to the legislature.
Next steps in Congress: As Congress considers its next moves on economic recovery and infrastructure investments, two notable housing bills are gaining support. The Emergency Rental Assistance and Rental Market Stabilization Act would appropriate $100 billion to provide short-term rental assistance – see the campaign fact sheet here. A more aggressive bill, introduced by Rep. Ilhan Omar, HR 6515, the Rent and Mortgage Cancellation Act of 2020, would cancel rent and mortgage payments for eligible families during the COVID crisis, and provide a fund to reimburse landlords and mortgagors for the resulting losses (with certain conditions attached). We have joined other housing, health, and human services organizations calling for broader housing investment in the next stimulus bill, including demands laid out by Opportunity Starts at Home. Don’t forget to add your voice calling for increased housing investment here.
