CESR works with policy and community groups to integrate a human rights perspective into education advocacy in New York City public schools. The international human rights framework recognizes that every child has the human right to a quality education. This right is codified in international treaties and declarations such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The human rights framework requires governments to fulfill the basic learning needs of every child, providing them with the skills necessary to participate fully in society and the knowledge to develop as a human being.
The Right to Education Project emphasizes the need to strengthen parent and community participation in the management and oversight of the school system in order to strengthen government accountability for providing a quality education.
The report Civil Society and School Accountability was produced by the Center for Economic and Social Rights and the New York University Institute for Education and Social Policy. The report argues that parents and communities have a human right to participate in the management and oversight of the school system, and that the effective protection of the right to participation is essential for creating greater accountability at all levels. It identifies and critiques the obstacles to participation that currently exist in New York City schools and makes recommendations based on human rights standards for how to better ensure effective civil society participation.
- Full Text of Report [pdf]
- Executive Summary - English version [ms word]
- Executive Summary - Spanish version [ms word]
Our research and documentation is based on a series of interviews with parents, community organizers and education advocates from across the city. The report draws from international declarations, conventions and other documents to lay out the human rights framework for participation and uses international examples to demonstrate the use of human rights standards in school management and oversight around the world.
Because Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Klein have launched a new round of school reform, the Children First initiative, this is a particularly critical time to discuss the human rights implications of civil society participation in school management. While the reforms are, in part, geared towards addressing the question of "parental involvement," they fail to provide parents and communities with adequate information and power to impact educational decision-making. Civil Society and School Accountability offers a broad framework for how human rights standards for participation can be applied to the Children First reform processes. It does not address many specific aspects of the reforms, but rather provides the parameters by which any reform effort must be assessed in relation to human rights obligations.
News Articles about the Report:
By Diane Lowman
OpEd, Daily News
October 21, 2003
By Lynda Crawford
Gotham Gazette
October, 2003
UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education:
In October 2001, CESR and the New York University Institute for Education and Social Policy, co-hosted a meeting on NYC's public education crisis between the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education and local education and advocacy groups. The Special Rapporteur is a UN appointed independent expert whose mandate is “to report on the status, throughout the world, of the progressive realization of the right to education.” Representatives of community advocacy groups and NGOS met with the Special Rapporteur and gave testimonies about the achievement gap in NYC schools and its impact on students, discussing issues of resource disparities, linguistic and cultural needs, discipline and special education, and adult literacy. The Special Rapporteur used the testimonies from the meeting in reports on education in the US and in New York City released in 2002.
- From the Outside Looking In: Changing New York City’s Education through the Human Rights Approach, April 2002 [pdf] - by Professor Katarina Tomasevski, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education
- Report submitted by Katarina Tomaševski, Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education on her Mission to the United States of America 24 September - 10 October 2001 [html]
- CESR fact sheet:
The Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education: A Human Rights Approach [pdf]
Right to Education Information Sheets:
CESR has produced four information sheets describing the international standards and governmental obligations around the right to education.
- The Right to Education in New York City
- The Role of an Ombudsperson for Education
- The Right to Participation
- The Right to a Remedy
Testimony before NY State Legislative Task Forces on School Governance and Parent Participation:
In 2002, the NY State Assembly passed legislation changing the governance structure of the NYC public school system and giving primary control over education to Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Since then Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Klein have launched the Children First reform process to reorganize the school system.
Among the changes to the school system resulting from the legislation and reform process, is the dissolution of Community School Boards. Community School Boards served as a mid-level governance structure for the elementary and middle school districts in NYC and helped facilitate parent and community participation in public education. The NY State Assembly mandated that a task force be created to put together a proposal for the Governor and state legislature on what should replace the Community School Boards to serve as the District level governance bodies for the public schools.
In December 2002 and January 2003, the NY State Assembly Task Force on Community School District Governance Reform held a series of public hearings to gather input from parents, community members and education advocates on what governance structure should be adopted. CESR submitted testimony to the Task Force on December 10, 2002 and January 15, 2003 presenting the human rights framework around the right to education. Our testimony describes the potential role of the new governance structure in ensuring the human right of parents, students and community members to participate in the school system, the right to effective remedies in the case of violations of the right to education, and the obligation of the government to monitor implementation and accountability around the right to education.
In June 2003, the NY State Assembly and Senate passed legislation putting in place new Community District Councils that will replace Community School Boards beginning in January 2004. These new councils fail to fulfill many of the human rights standards around the right to effective participation described in our testimony.
- CESR's Testimony before the Task Force on Community School District Governance Reform, Focusing on the Right to Participation [pdf] (December 10, 2002)
- CESR's Supplemental Testimony before the Task Force on the Right to a Remedy for Violations of the Right to Education [pdf] (January 16, 2003)
- Senate Bill #S5688, the legislation passed by the NY State Senate on what will replace Community School Boards, can be located here.
Links to testimony of other community and advocacy groups:
The Drum Major Institute and the NYU Institute for Education and Social Policy
Advocates for Public Representation in Education
Links to Other Groups:
New York University Institute for Education and Social Policy
People’s Coalition to Take Back our Schools
Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund
Resources on Education in NYC