Creating Education Justice in a Multiracial Democracy

Join Education Law Center, EdTrust, the Eisenhower Foundation, and the National Education Policy Center on October 15 at 3 p.m. ET for a timely discussion of the centrality of public education as a core component of our multiracial and diverse democracy – and how we can rejuvenate efforts to preserve and strengthen it.

The webinar is inspired by the recent publication of Creating Justice in a Multiracial Democracy: New Will for Evidence-Based Polices that Work, an update to the 1968 Kerner Commission Report. The Kerner Commission was formed by President Johnson in 1967 to address civil protests and violence that had occurred in communities throughout the nation. In 1968, the Kerner Report noted: “It is time to make good the promises of American democracy to all citizens – urban and rural, white and Black, Spanish surname, American Indian and every minority group.” In 2026, those promises are still unmet, and indeed are being further threatened by anti-education and anti-democratic policies and actions.

Creating Justice presents a fresh vision for what ails our country and the “new will” required to achieve it. With contributions from multiple scholars and experts, it asserts that we know a great deal about the evidence-based economic, education, youth development, criminal justice, crime prevention, housing and public health policies needed to reduce economic inequality, poverty and racial injustice in America. Yet, today, the nation is not scaling up what works and is instead pursuing what doesn’t work.

The webinar will begin with an overview of Creating Justice and a call to action by Alan Curtis, President of the Eisenhower Foundation. It will continue with a discussion among Mr. Curtis, ELC Executive Director Robert Kim, EdTrust President and CEO Denise Forte, and National Education Policy Center Director Kevin Welner about the future of public education, including the ideas raised by contributing experts in Creating Justice. The panelists will explore questions such as:

• How does public education relate to other public policy areas and to our democracy as a whole?
•  What are the most urgent problems facing public education in the U.S. today? How do they compare to the civil rights era?
• What are the enduring challenges related to the impact of race and poverty on providing equal educational opportunity?
• How can we foster what the Kerner Commission called “new will” to legislate and innovate in education “at a scale equal to the dimensions of the problem”?

Register now for this timely webinar: Creating Education Justice in a Multiracial Democracy.

Press Contact:
Sharon Krengel
Director of Policy, Strategic Partnerships and Communications
skrengel@edlawcenter.org
973-624-1815, x240