Kara Finnigan co-authors policy brief on the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act

Professor Kara Finnigan has co-authored a policy brief that presents a framework for federal policymakers to ground the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) in an evidence-based, equitable, and ecological approach centered on sustained educational equality of opportunity.

The ESEA was most recently reauthorized in 2015 as the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which itself was due for reauthorization after the 2020-21 school year. Congress may not act any time soon on that reauthorization, notes the National Education Policy Center (NEPC) in a press release, but when it does, it can improve the law in key ways.

Along with co-authors Elizabeth DeBray of the University of Georgia, Janel George of Georgetown University Law Center, and Janelle Scott of the University of California-Berkeley, Finnigan has developed a civil rights framework to guide the redesign of ESSA. The approach detailed in A Civil Rights Framework for the Reauthorization of ESEA places students, staff, school systems, and cross-sector collaboration at the center of ESEA and considers the complexity of racial, socioeconomic, and other inequities along with the strengths nested within communities. Finnigan notes that thinking differently about the federal role in equity and racial justice is especially important given the inequities that were exacerbated by the pandemic.

“The brief offers recommendations that build upon ESSA’s core purpose and its critical history as being, first and foremost, a civil rights law,” says the NEPC. “As such, the recommendations are designed to ensure it is responsive to racial and social inequities across systems that affect students’ educational experiences and outcomes.”