The Washington Lawyers’ Committee’s Pursuit of Quality Public Educational Opportunity for All of DC’s Children
This Article--written as part of a series of pieces to commemorate the Committee's fiftieth anniversary--now seeks to chronicle the Committee's work empowering parents of color and of limited income in support of public educational equity, reform and student enrichment in the District from the early 1980's to the present day. Building on the early efforts of the Committee's Education Project attorneys, Parents United and the Parent Group Fund, the Committee has continued in the years since to play an important role - alongside empowered parents, private attorneys and the business community - in seeking to ensure that the needs of DC's school children are not short-changed amid the wide-ranging ravages of long-running urban poverty and segregation. In doing so, the Committee has strived to position itself as a partner - rather than an adversary - working with public school leaders, staff and communities toward this end, and challenging and drawing attention to impediments placed in the way of achieving this goal in deference to less noble or worthy competing interests.