Published in the Nov. 26 – Dec. 9, 2014 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Julia Hover-Smoot
Julia Hover-Smoot
One of the greatest and most commendable values we hold in America is that of a free education for all children, no matter where they come from, how much money they have, which language they speak at home or if they have special needs.
The right to a free and appropriate education is a promise that we Americans make to each other — we promise each child a fair chance, an equal opportunity. We know that education is the source of personal freedom and liberty and a path to success. It is at the core of our constitutional beliefs.
But today there is a deep and painful flaw in our promise of equal opportunity and the flaw lies in our public system of education. It is no secret that some children are better served than others and our children of color, our children from low socio-economic families, our least powerful, are being left behind. There is no doubt about this fact — it is well documented and widely discussed.
I have come to believe that closing the achievement gap and finding a way to ensure equal opportunity in education is the most fundamental challenge of our century.
For the past four years I served with six other trustees on the Santa Clara County Board of Education, wrestling with this issue and struggling to find a way to answer the challenges. It has been difficult work — requiring many more hours than I imagined and hard choices that left many people unsatisfied.
I experienced how agonizing these issues are for all the people involved — for parents who see the injustice, for students who already, in their youth, understand the pain of prejudice, for teachers who fear the loss of their jobs.
And in the end, the county board — seven imperfect people who share deep convictions about equity — must apply the law and make a decision. I believe it is fair to say that seldom has any board faced such difficult issues.
In my four years on the board, I tried to speak for the powerless. I spoke for those who share the human condition, who struggle against human oppression and who intrinsically understand human aspiration. I came to believe that we have a moral and constitutional duty to act — to do what we can to change the system so it serves all children equally.
It is wrong, deadly wrong, to deny any student an equal education. When we do so, we deny that student his or her hopes because of their color or their race or their place of birth. When we deny a student an equal opportunity to learn, we dishonor America and we dishonor America’s promises to her people and our promises to each other.
In 1963, our then-president LBJ, stated “Until justice is blind to color, until education is unaware of race, until opportunity is unconcerned with the color of men’s skins, emancipation will be a proclamation but not a fact.”
In Santa Clara County today, we cannot say these are true.
Julia Hover-Smoot is the outgoing board member for Area 7 of the Santa Clara County Board of Education.
