A Growing Resistance

I find myself with the overwhelming idea that I need to bring all of the angst splattered upon this page into a coherent, cohesive and possible idea, and it comes to this: social change as a growing resistance.  That is, resisting the notion of the unreachable, implausible and the backlash received when testing out a new idea.  Theoretically, our class have beaten the ethical education horse to a pulp, yet a theoretical foundation for education lacks an important aspect: the necessary tools to implant such profound ideas.

In education, perhaps more than anywhere else, it is valuable to put our values and ideologies to the test, and not just in a safe classroom, on a gated campus, with the glasses of hindsight and the omnipresent knowledge of socially accepted ideas being placed ever so firmly into our heads (no offense, Mr. Spring).

On March 24th, 1997 --- it seemed that the Ohio Supreme Court stood up and declared the state's ethics and behavior were misaligned. In a 4-3 decision, the court's ruled that the Ohio system of funding education "fails to provide for a thorough and effective system of common schools," as required by the Ohio Constitution. 

The then current system, and the system today, allowed Ohio's public schools to be funded with a combination of property tax revenue and state grants.  This led to an obvious disparity for each student as quality of education in more affluent areas lead to greater funding and less wealthy districts, such as that in rural Cleveland, were left strapped with poor funding and dilapidated buildings. 

Essentially, the Supreme Court ruled against such a system of funding --- talk about putting your money where your mouth is. While some might call it "judicial activism" and renounce such a ruling, aren't the judges simply following the parameters of the State's ethics written in ink? The Ohio Constitution calls for a a "thorough and efficient system of common schools throughout the State." 

Please, speak up if anyone finds that to be a valid statement regarding our state's school system.  Further, if someone were claim the statement valid, than an education in the Cleveland city school districts would be equally thorough and effective than the one received in a suburban district like Mayfield, Strongsville, Solon or Twinsburg.  

14 years after the decision, the system of funding has not been changed, and the court ---whose job is not to implement law, simply to interpret it, eventually renounced jurisdiction upon the case. Our system of common school funding is still unevenly funded and our elected officials turn a blind eye to the overwhelming disparity in education in our state.

Once again, ethics are nailed to the door, written in ink and sworn to by every congressman, governor and elected official, but when it comes down to it, our Constitution counts more as glorified PR than anything else.

How can a nation based upon equality enslave a colored people for a hundred years? How can a nation demanding the absolution of oppression with one hand annihilate a native people with the other? And How can a state which has sworn to a thorough and equal education turn a blind eye to such intellectual oppression? Our ability to ignore our own words is astounding and it has not stopped, it has merely become less blatant -- another nice PR move. 

Yes, recognizing the disparity is important.  But the nation, the state, and the school, need more officials to make note of the issues and continue to strive toward their destruction.  Such dilemmas cannot hide behind paper forever.