Michael Rebell is 鈥渘o stranger to playing the long game,鈥� notes of the longtime education litigator and Teachers College faculty member 鈥� particularly when it comes to creating better schooling for those most in need.
As a law student at Yale University, Rebell 鈥� now Professor of Law and Educational Practice and Director of 麻豆原创鈥檚 鈥� taught for a program that prepared high school graduates from underprivileged backgrounds to enter elite colleges. After graduation, he worked at a law firm, where he helped what was then the New York City Board of Education decentralize its school system. And from 1993 through 2006, he served as lead attorney in a victorious lawsuit against New York State that was on track to bring New York City billions of dollars in additional school funding 鈥� until the 2008 recession halted the payments.
Rebell is prepared to hang tough in what could be the ultimate quest of his career: the suit he filed two years ago, on behalf of public school students in Rhode Island, seeking to establish that all students have a constitutional right to an education that prepares them to participate in the nation鈥檚 democratic activities.
All of those experiences, suggest the article鈥檚 co-authors, Columbia students Megan Lunny and Adina Cazecu-De Luca, have prepared Rebell to hang tough in what could be the ultimate quest of his career: the suit he filed two years ago, on behalf of public school students in Rhode Island, seeking to establish that all students have a constitutional right to an education that prepares them to participate in the nation鈥檚 democratic activities.
That case, Cook v. Raimondo, was recently dismissed by Judge William Smith of the U.S. District Court for Rhode Island 鈥� but in his 55-page opinion, Smith affirmed the need for civics education 鈥渋n these fraught times鈥� and commended the plaintiffs, writing, 鈥淲hat these young people seem to recognize is that American democracy is in peril.鈥�
鈥淚 would have preferred to have won. But if we were going to lose, this is as good as it could have been,鈥� says Rebell, who is planning an appeal that he hopes will bring the matter to the Supreme Court. [Read a story about the verdict, and read a subsequent interview with Rebell on his plans for appeal.]
In so doing, he tells the Spectator, he鈥檚 inspired by his plaintiffs, some of whom will likely graduate from high school before any ultimate victory: 鈥淚 mean, just that attitude is saying something about understanding civic involvement and doing things to make something in your community better for other people, even if you鈥檙e not going to personally benefit from it.鈥�