Derek W. Black is a professor of law and one of the nation’s foremost experts in education law and policy.
He focuses on school funding and equality for disadvantaged students. He has published over thirty scholarly articles in the nation’s top legal journals, including the flagship journals at Yale, Stanford, New York University, California-Berkeley, Virginia, Cornell, Northwestern and Vanderbilt. His research is regularly cited in judicial opinions and briefs in federal and state courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. He is also involved in school funding and federal policy litigation, where he serves as an expert witness and consultant.
His work, however, reaches beyond the legal community. In an era of dwindling public school resources and ever-expanding inequality and privatization, he frequently appears in the media. His essays appear in USA Today, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, and Time, among others. Outlets like the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Atlantic, Washington Post, and Education Week regularly request his expert analysis and commentary. He is also a frequent radio and television guest for national, regional, and local outlets.
He is currently a Professor of Law at the University of South Carolina. He began his career in teaching at Howard University School of Law, where he founded and directed the Education Rights Center. Prior to teaching, he litigated education cases at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
His recent book, Schoolhouse Burning: Public Education and the Assault on American Democracy, warns that current education trends represent a retreat from our nation’s foundational commitments to democracy and public education.
His forthcoming book, Dangerous Learning, uses the South’s repression of black education and freedom literature before and after the Civil War as a lens to examine current racial controversies in schools.
“I also think school board members need to be standing up, too, and saying, “If you don’t like this, then unelect us. But right now our job is to serve the 100 percent. But we can’t even serve the 95 percent or the 99 percent if we’re running around chasing our tails, with the 1 percenters complaining about stuff.”
I seriously doubt whether a lot of school boards attempt to serve even 10% now when most are Democrats and most public school teachers are Democrats.
Democrats are truly evil. The Parent’s Bill of Rights that passed by a vote of 213-208 in the US House of Representatives with an overwhelming Democrat dissent. Note the bill had no hope in the Senate or with the Administration but is central to the life of the Democrat Party. Below is a link to the text of the bill, but I have excerpted some of the egregious provisions in case you don’t want to read the bill’s text.
H.R.5 - Parents Bill of Rights Act
https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/5/text#:~:text=%5BFor%20text%20of%20introduced%20bill%2C%20see%20copy%20of,America%20in%20Congress%20assembled%2C%20SECTION%201.%20Short%20title.
curriculum is freely and publicly available on the internet
widely disseminates to the public such curriculum
the detailed budget information required shall include a separate fact sheet that summarizes such information in a clear and easily understandable format.”
ensure that school provides to the parents notice that includes the name of the speaker and the name of the organization or other entity being represented by the speaker.”
A local educational agency receiving funds under this part shall ensure that widely disseminates to the public, a summary notice of the right of parents to information about their children’s education which shall be in an understandable format for parents
“(C) the right to meet with each teacher of their child not less than twice during each school year
“(D) the right to review the budget, including all revenues and expenditures, of their child’s school
“(E) the right to a list of the books and other reading materials available in the library and inspect such books or other reading materials
“(G) the right to address the school board of the local educational agency
“(L) the right to know if a school employee or contractor acts to change a minor child’s gender markers, pronouns, or preferred name; or allow a child to change the child’s sex-based accommodations, including locker rooms or bathrooms
“(M) the right to know if a school employee or contractor acts to treat, advise, or the bullying or a specific threat to the safety of a student
“(Q) the right to know if their child’s school allows an individual whose biological sex is male to use restrooms or changing rooms designated for individuals whose biological sex is female
Congress finds the following:
“(1) The right of parents to educate their children is a pre-political natural right that the U.S. Supreme Court has recognized as ‘beyond debate’ and rooted in the ‘history and culture of Western civilization’.
“(2) Parents have a First Amendment right to express their opinions on decisions made by State and local education leaders.
“(3) States and local educational agencies should empower parents to communicate regularly with Federal, State, and local policymakers and educators regarding the education and well-being of their children.