This month I would like to honor different women for their accomplishments, contributions and strength.
I am NOT
going to write about the women we learn about every single year
because there're some many more women from all over the world,
poor/middle class/rich, of color, disabled/abled, LBTTQQ... that go
without recognition ever single year for their AMAZING achivements and lives.
I will kick it this all off by honoring....
Elizabeth Horton Sheff, the woman who brought the Charter schools case to superior court and won a landmark decision regarding civil rights and the right to education. Although she is responsible for Connecticut having charter and magnet schools and (on a national level) for charter school's receiving publicity and becoming more acceptable, you won't even see her name on Wiki and you'll be lucky if the case itself is mention in history books. The case, better known as Sheff vs. O'neill, is under her son's name, for he was her inspiration for fighting for equality in the school system. Her argument was, although Brown vs. Board made it illegal to racially segregate schools, due to red lining in the 60's creating pockets of communities with share ethnicity and race which still culturally affect major cities across the USA (or more specific to the case, Hartford, CT) school districts became racial divided and have fluctuated very little since. These communities were racially divided, which means they were also denied opportunities to advance beyond their social class; today these communities continue to be impoverish, which is reflected in the amount of tax revenue collect in these areas. The low tax revenues reflects directly in the access to resources and funding available to the schools in the districts. On these grounds being required by law to only attend the school in your district without any alternatives available violates the Brown vs. Broad ruling and it's on these grounds she made history. The case was opened in 1989, a year later while there was no progress in CT, the awareness it generated was reflected in Minnesota's passing the first charter school law in 1991, California became second, in 1992.
Recently, I'm aware that she's on the Hartford Council Board, responsible for a district-wide essay compitition held in 2007, which had ask students why diversity is important to the school system (I know this because I was one of the top 3 winners of this compitition my freashman year of high school and met her at the awards ceremony) and she is a constributor to the free SAT prep program for the inner city youth of Hartford (a program I participated in, twice).I attended one of the first magnet schools founded in direct result of the superior court ruling.
She is a living hero, who may not be in the history books for her constribution to racial equality and the right to education, but to me she will alway be a hero worth honoring (I own her my high school education, my high SAT and ACT scores and the cash reward prize that paid for my college deposit).
Thank you Elizabeth Horton Sheff,
I do not own this picture of her; it's from her website, http://uhaweb.hartford.edu/SHEFF/About%20Me.html
I will kick it this all off by honoring....
Elizabeth Horton Sheff, the woman who brought the Charter schools case to superior court and won a landmark decision regarding civil rights and the right to education. Although she is responsible for Connecticut having charter and magnet schools and (on a national level) for charter school's receiving publicity and becoming more acceptable, you won't even see her name on Wiki and you'll be lucky if the case itself is mention in history books. The case, better known as Sheff vs. O'neill, is under her son's name, for he was her inspiration for fighting for equality in the school system. Her argument was, although Brown vs. Board made it illegal to racially segregate schools, due to red lining in the 60's creating pockets of communities with share ethnicity and race which still culturally affect major cities across the USA (or more specific to the case, Hartford, CT) school districts became racial divided and have fluctuated very little since. These communities were racially divided, which means they were also denied opportunities to advance beyond their social class; today these communities continue to be impoverish, which is reflected in the amount of tax revenue collect in these areas. The low tax revenues reflects directly in the access to resources and funding available to the schools in the districts. On these grounds being required by law to only attend the school in your district without any alternatives available violates the Brown vs. Broad ruling and it's on these grounds she made history. The case was opened in 1989, a year later while there was no progress in CT, the awareness it generated was reflected in Minnesota's passing the first charter school law in 1991, California became second, in 1992.
Recently, I'm aware that she's on the Hartford Council Board, responsible for a district-wide essay compitition held in 2007, which had ask students why diversity is important to the school system (I know this because I was one of the top 3 winners of this compitition my freashman year of high school and met her at the awards ceremony) and she is a constributor to the free SAT prep program for the inner city youth of Hartford (a program I participated in, twice).I attended one of the first magnet schools founded in direct result of the superior court ruling.
She is a living hero, who may not be in the history books for her constribution to racial equality and the right to education, but to me she will alway be a hero worth honoring (I own her my high school education, my high SAT and ACT scores and the cash reward prize that paid for my college deposit).
Thank you Elizabeth Horton Sheff,
My life would be very different right now if you
hadn't stood up and created change.
No comments:
Post a Comment