WHEREAS, The City of Philadelphia hosted this year’s NAACP Convention at the Pennsylvania Convention Center; and
WHEREAS, Among the myriad of panelists and speakers, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, as one of the keynote speakers, addressed the 50th Anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s
Brown v. Board of Education
decision, and was quoted as saying that, “The civil-rights movement must do what neither political party will do – raise the bar to the level of constitutional protection”; and
WHEREAS, Reverend Jackson has adopted the position that an amendment to the Constitution is needed because most states’ reliance on property taxes as a means of funding school districts is just as harmful to poor and minority children as racial segregation. He further went on to say that, “The only way you can offset the separate but unequally funded schools is to have education as a national right and not education as a commodity – a nationally funded school system”; and
WHEREAS, Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr., (D-Ill.), introduced for both the House and the Senate to approve (H.J. Res. 29), a joint resolution creating an education amendment to the Constitution. When it was introduced, Congressman Jackson cited that there are over 15,000 school districts in this country which are all separate and unequal, each with varying degrees of opportunity, funding and quality; and
WHEREAS, Harvard Law Professor Charles Ogletree was quoted saying that, “A constitutional amendment would create the opportunity to have what we don’t have now – multi-district resources so poor and wealthy schools will have the same quality education…”; and
WHEREAS, This body recognizes that the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s guarantees that education shall be a right, and that such a right on a national level would benefit all; now therefore
RESOLVED, THAT THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, Calls on all members of Congress to support the Reverend Jesse Jackson’s call for supporting a United States Constitutional Amendment guaranteeing an equal, high quality education for all of the nation’s children; and
FURTHER RESOLVED, That a copy of this resolution be forwarded to all members of the U.S. Congress, the U.S. Senate and to the Reverend Jesse Jackson.
End