Lesson
Materials (word document)
AIM:
Should there be a constitutionally guaranteed right to education?
LESSON
DESCRIPTION:
This lesson is the first of three lessons in a small Social Studies
unit on the Campaign for Fiscal Equity [CFE] lawsuit. The unit was
formulated with the New York State curriculum in mind, to be used
in an 11th grade class in U.S. History and Government, a 12th grade
class Participation in Government class or an Advanced Placement US
Government and Politics class. It is particularly suited for the study
of state government.
The focus of this
first lesson is the idea of a “right to an education.”
The lesson examines the correlation between social class and status
in the US, on the one hand, and the completion of post-secondary education,
on the other hand. It discusses two crucial Supreme Court cases touching
upon education – Brown v. Board of Education [1954], which outlawed
de jure racial segregation in schools, and San Antonio Independent
School District v. Rodriguez [1973], which refused to extend the principles
of Brown to establish a right to an education. The lesson then considers
why the Court may have been reluctant to adopt a ‘positive right’
which requires governmental action, such as a right to education.
It studies how the advocates for equity in education transferred their
efforts to the state governments and courts, and how this resulted
in CFE lawsuit in New York State. The lesson concludes with a discussion
of how the CFE case has defined a “right to education”
in New York.
The lesson plan
was written in the format of a developmental lesson, with parallel
columns of contents, the concepts and information students should
be learning, and questions, which the teacher should employ to initiate
student discussion and induce higher order student thought. Those
questions could just as easily be used as a basis for leading a seminar
discussion of the topic. The lesson plan contains two full days of
material, so it should be edited down if the teacher wishes to teach
it in one day.
STANDARDS
ADDRESSED:
Standard 1: History of the United States and New York [Commencement
Level]
1. Students will describe the evolution of American democratic values
and beliefs as expressed in the Declaration of Independence, the New
York State Constitution, the United States Constitution, the Bill
of Rights, and other important historical documents.
Standard 5:
Civics, Citizenship and Government: [Commencement Level]
2. Students will trace the evolution of American values, beliefs,
and institutions; analyze the disparities between civic values expressed
in the United States Constitution and the United Nation Universal
Declaration of Human Rights and the realities as evidenced in the
political, social, and economic life in the United States and throughout
the world; identify, respect, and model those core civic values inherent
in our founding documents that have been forces for unity in American
society; compare and contrast the Constitutions of the United States
and New York State; and understand the dynamic relationship between
federalism and state’s rights.
3. Students will
analyze issues at the local, state, and national levels and prescribe
responses that promote the public interest or general welfare, such
as planning and carrying out a voter registration campaign.
4. Students will
evaluate, take, and defend positions on what the fundamental values
and principles of American political life are and their importance
to the maintenance of constitutional democracy; take, defend, and
evaluate positions about attitudes that facilitate thoughtful and
effective participation in public affairs; participate in school/classroom/community
activities that focus on an issue or problem; prepare a plan of action
that defines an issue or problem, suggests alternative solutions or
courses of action, evaluates the consequences for each alternative
solution or course of action, prioritizes the solutions based on established
criteria, and proposes an action plan to address the issue or to resolve
the problem; and explain how democratic principles have been used
in resolving an issue or problem.
AIM
Should there be a constitutionally guaranteed right to education?
Instructional
Objectives
Students will be able to:
- explain why
education is increasing important for Americans;
- explain how
the fundamental rights of Americans are protected;
- describe the
Supreme Court rulings in Brown v. Board of Education [1954] and
San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez [1973], and
explain how they have circumscribed the ‘right to education’
in the U.S. Constitution;
- define ‘negative’
rights and ‘positive’ rights, and explain the difference
between the two conceptions of rights;
- take, evaluate
and defend a position on whether positive rights should be guaranteed
by the US Constitution;
- define ‘new
judicial federalism’;
- explain how
the protections of individual rights provided for in the US Constitution
and Bill of Rights make up a floor rather than a ceiling for such
protections, and how state courts may, based on the rights protected
in state constitutions, provide additional protections;
- explain how
the New York State Court of Appeals has used ‘new judicial
federalism’ establish a ‘right to education,’
based on the State Constitution’s guarantee of a “sound,
basic education”;
- describe the
ruling of the New York State Court of Appeals in Campaign for Fiscal
Equity v. State of New York [1995], and explain how it established
a right to education for New Yorkers;
- offer a reasoned
opinion on what would be required to meet the constitutional guarantee
of a “sound, basic education,” and on whether or not
the Court of Appeals has identified all of the components of that
education.
Motivation
Do you play off the two adults in your life (father/mother, grandmother/mother,
aunt/mother) in order to get what you want? Is there an analogy here
with individuals who seek to obtain protections for their rights from
both the US Supreme Court and state supreme courts?
To
Lesson 2
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Subject
Areas:
Social Studies
Grade Levels: 9-12
About
the teacher:
Leo
Casey is currently Special Representative for High Schools
at the United Federation of Teachers. Prior to his work at the UFT,
he spent 14 years teaching Social Studies at Clara Barton High School
in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, NY. During his teaching
stint, his classes of inner city students regularly won New York City
and New York State championships, and placed as high as fourth in
the nation, in the national "We The People: The Citizen and the
Constitution" competition. He has received several awards for
his teaching, including being named the Social Studies Teacher of
the Year in 1992 by the American Teacher Awards. He holds a Ph.D.
in political science from the University of Toronto, and is the author
of several published articles on politics and education.
leoecasey@optonline.net
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