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D.C. State Board of Education (SBOE) Vice President Jacque Patterson, fresh off the campaign trail, said he will soon recommend a resolution aimed at holding the D.C. government legally accountable for providing every public school student with a high-quality education.
If the state board follows Patterson’s recommendation during a working meeting scheduled for this week, then representatives will be able to vote on a resolution, titled The Civil Right to a High-Quality Education Resolution of 2024, as early as Dec. 11.
“This was a working proof for open dialogue about education as a civil right,” Patterson, a member of the state board’s Education as a Civil Right working group, told The Informer.
Patterson told The Informer that he and his fellow working group members — SBOE Representatives Allister Chang (Ward 2), Eric Goulet (Ward 3) and Brandon Best (Ward 6) — spent time between May and the Nov. 20 public meeting preparing to provide recommendations to the entire state board.
The actual language will be developed between Dec. 4 and Dec. 11, Patterson said. He expressed a desire for the passage of a resolution in support of an amendment to the D.C. Home Rule charter that codifies the District’s obligation to provide a high-quality education to all public school students.
Much of the testimony from panelists, and later public witnesses, centered on the language for the resolution that Patterson spent a year developing in consultation with local and out-of-state legal scholars. Although he acknowledged concerns about amending the Home Rule Charter while the District government is in the cross hairs of a Republican-controlled Congress and, soon, a second Trump White House, he said time is of the essence in improving academic outcomes.
“Everyone agrees we need to do something about proficiency, especially east of the Anacostia River, but there’s no consensus on how we achieve that,” Patterson, an at-large member of the SBOE, told The Informer. “We’re making efforts [in education] but we haven’t put in place the types of resources that make big impacts. We have to focus and get people accountable for getting there.”
State Board Members Debate a Small, But Impactful, Change to the Home Rule Charter
Patterson said he wants to add a critical caveat to the Home Rule Charter.
“The District and its public schools shall provide all public school students with high quality public schools, defined as schools that equip students with the tools necessary to participate meaningfully in our economy, our society, and our democracy. Legal action to enforce this fundamental right shall be limited to equitable relief,” Patterson contends, is language that should be added to the charter.
If the resolution passes, the D.C. Council has the option of introducing it as legislation that can be passed and sent to Congress for approval.
In 1973 — less than 20 years after Brown v. Board of Education deemed segregation illegal — the Supreme Court ruled, in San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez, that the U.S. Constitution doesn’t guarantee a right to education.
Though most states have statements that, to some degree, obligate the state government to provide public school education, at least a dozen states deem education necessary to preserve rights and liberties. Only Florida, Illinois and Virginia have clauses in their state constitution mandating high-quality education.
To this day, the fight for equal access to high-quality education continues throughout the United States. The local discussion about education as a civil right comes one year after advocates in California failed to get a similarly worded ballot measure on the 2024 general election ballot.
