League of Women Voters hosts author of ‘Schoolhouse Burning’

By Gwyneth J. Saunders CONTRIBUTOR

Derek W. Black, author of “Schoolhouse Burning: Public Education and the Assault on American Democracy,” will be guest speaker at two free events hosted by the League of Women Voters Hilton Head Island-Bluffton Area.

Black will speak at 10 a.m. Feb. 25 at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Lowcountry, 110 Malphrus Road, Bluffton. At 2 p.m., he will speak at the Penn Center, 16 Penn Center Circle E, St. Helena Island.

Black is the product of a public education, having attended high school in Clinton, Tennessee, where he was born and raised. Currently serving as a professor of law at the University of South Carolina School of Law and director of its Constitutional Law Center, he said he never envisioned himself with a college degree, let alone as an expert in education law and policy.

According to his biography, “he offers expert witness testimony in school funding, voucher, and federal policy litigation and his research is routinely cited in the federal courts, including before the U.S. Supreme Court. He is also a regular commentator and op-ed contributor in outlets like USA Today, New York Times, Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal, among others. He appears on radio and television, including National Public Radio stations and affiliates across the nation, PBS, cable television networks, and CSPAN.”

In the foreword to his book, Black said there were more GEDs in his family than college degrees until he earned one. It wasn’t until years later that he realized how important his high school and his community were to his education, and that of millions of students across the country. In 1956, Clinton High School “was the first traditionally white high school in the South to enroll and graduate an African American student,” he wrote.

The local League of Women Voters chapter scheduled presentations in order to educate the public about the current state of affairs in public schools.

“The League is trying to do some public relations education programs to help peo- ple be aware so they can make informed choices. Many people are not aware of what is happening in the schools,” said League member Marsha Lewellyn. “And without public education, he wouldn’t be where he is right now. He felt that without public education, that gift of public education, he wouldn’t have amounted to anything.”

When discussing the arrangements and locations for his presentation, Black expressed a wish to speak at the Penn Center, location of one of the country’s first schools for formerly enslaved people.

“It’s because it addressed underserved populations. Around here, it’s kind of a beacon of democracy,” said Diane Heitman, League director of voter services.

“And in this country, Black said that education is an intergenerational gift that we pass down from generation to generation, the right to a public education, and we’re losing that.”