Urban School Coalition Calls For Federal Action
To Address School Resource Disparities

WASHINGTON, May 15 -- On the 49^th anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision, the disparities in the distribution of educational resources among school districts prevent millions of children from receiving an equal educational opportunity.

The Council of Great City Schools, in its recent amicus brief in the New York City school finance case, documents that the disparities fall disproportionately on school districts serving poor and minority children. 

A recent study called Beating the Odds by the urban school coalition also showed that more than half of the nation's urban schoolchildren attend schools whose expenditures per child were below statewide averages.       

The "Student Bill of Rights" legislation (H.R. 236) introduced by Congressman Chaka Fattah of Pennsylvania in the House of Representatives and the soon-to-be re-introduction by Senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut  in the Senate will require the states to disclose the resource inequities among their school districts,  and to take steps to remedy these disparities.

"It is well past time for the federal government to require the states to deal with the ongoing inequities in educational resources so often inflicted upon poor and minority children," says Council Executive Director Michael Casserly.  "The enactment of the 'Student Bill of Rights' legislation by the 50^th anniversary of Brown would be a major step in rekindling the federal commitment to equal educational opportunity."