California

17 percent of all African-American students received out-of-school suspensions in the 2009-2010 school year compared to 7 percent of Latino students and just 5 percent of White students. Even more shocking, 25 percent of African-American students with disabilities were suspended the same year. In "Opportunities Suspended: The Disparate Impact of Disciplinary Exclusion From School," the Center for Civil Rights Remedies at the UCLA's Civil Rights Project analyzes data from the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights on school discipline and suspensions in the 2009-10 school year. The comprehensive report reveals the unconscionable disparities regarding which students are pushed out of the classroom and locked out of school.

The current "Highly Qualified Teacher" (HQT) amendment to the federal Appropriations Bill allows teachers-in-training to be designated as "highly qualified." Problem is, as soon as you start calling everybody highly qualified, you lose the ability to tell which students are actually being served by quality, experienced teachers and which students are being systematically denied access to the most important, in-classroom resources they need. In a column for the Huffington Post, John Affeldt, Managing Attorney at Public Advocates, deftly explains what the HQT amendment does, what faulty logic and research support it and why we need a reality check on how this misleading label has allowed teachers-in-training to be concentrated in struggling schools to the detriment of our nation's low-income students and students of color.

The 2012 version of the Annie E. Casey Foundation's annual "KIDS COUNT Data Book" provides a wealth of information about the well-being of our nation's children, including state-by-state data on educational opportunities, economic security, access to healthcare and family and community environments. The report illustrates the deep disparities between children of color and their White peers and between children from wealthy and low-income families in access to the opportunities and supports necessary to succeed in school and in life. Overall, the report finds that a higher percentage of students of color are living in poverty, not attending preschool, not graduating on time and don't have health insurance compared to non-Hispanic White children.

Higher graduation rates typically correlate to lower incarceration rates. Why then do states with higher graduation rates for students of color also witness higher rates of incarceration for the same population? Because our criminal justice system, and the school-to-prison pipeline, disproportionately affects students of color. 

Far too many states continue to deny public schools the essential resources they need to provide every child with a fair and substantive opportunity to learn. The Second Edition of Education Law Center's Is School Funding Fair? A National Report Card rates the 50 states on the basis of four "fairness indicators" - funding level, funding distribution, state fiscal effort, and public school coverage - and provides the most in-depth analysis to date of state education finance systems.

Severing the link between school finance and local property taxes would help to eliminate the funding inequities that plague our schools and that deprive low-income students of the resources and opportunities they need to succeed. In the Sunday Dialogue section in the New York Times, Dr. John H. Jackson, President and CEO of the Schott Foundation for Public Education, argues for a more just method for funding our nation's schools.

17-year-old Andrea Lopez knows about the academic disadvantages poor students and students of color face because she has experienced them first hand. In a poignant essay, she describes her experience as a confident, studious high school student sitting down in an SAT prep class only to realize how underprepared she felt with the material compared to the wealthier, White students in the class. Her story is a vivid reminder of the necessity of ensuring that all students have access to a fair and substantive opportunity to learn.

For almost 10 years, members of the CA-based Campaign for Quality Education (CQE) have held an annual rally in Sacramento to on behalf of high-quality education for all students regardless of family income or ethnicity. Over 200 students, parents and community organizers attended CQE's Education "Day of Action" this year in early May. 

School districts across the country are struggling to make ends meet as a result of massive education budget cuts and tax caps. In California, a record number of school districts won't be able to pay their bills this school year.