Ryan Moore '25
Historian
Many academics spend their entire careers wondering if anybody will read their research. The generation and dissemination of knowledge is hard, often unrewarding work. So hard, in fact, that I left my graduate program after realizing that my research would amount to nothing more than screaming into the void.[1]
Not so for Professor Kimberly Jenkins Robinson, the inaugural director of the Law School’s Education Rights Institute (ERI) and a leading scholar in education law. Professor Robinson’s research on K-20 educational equity, school funding, and various other civil rights issues is influential in the educational rights field. Enough so that on October 16, 2023, Professor Robinson and the Law School launched ERI, made possible by a $4.9 million donation from an anonymous philanthropist inspired by her work. For the last year, Professor Robinson and ERI have supported scholarship about a federal right to education, opportunity gaps in providing a high-quality education to all, and how school districts can best comply with Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
This month, I had the pleasure to sit down with Professor Robinson to talk about ERI, her research, and how UVA Law students can help.
ERI’s three-part mission is to expand the opportunity for every student in the United States to enjoy a right to a high-quality education. To Professor Robinson, a high-quality education is one that prepares students to be college- and career-ready, and helps students become engaged civic participants. ERI also seeks to help schools understand their legal obligations to protect students’ civil rights under Title VI, which prohibits schools that receive federal funds from discriminating on the basis of race, color or national origin. Finally, ERI promotes research about educational inequality and how law and policy reforms and federal resources can best address opportunity gaps. ERI is staffed by three full-time employees who are all former teachers: two Ph.D. researchers and a civil rights attorney in New Orleans. Professor Robinson also hires UVA Law students to support the institute. ERI staff not only conduct research, but gets that research into the hands of policymakers, school districts, and the public on the front lines of education.
Much research and activism focus on what is “wrong” with the American education system, and rightly so. Large socioeconomic gaps exist in this country along racial, class, and geographic lines, yet America’s vast wealth is not consistently invested or used strategically. As Professor Robinson previously stated: “We’re the only wealthy nation that provides less funding to disadvantaged students. We are undermining our education system and the democracy, economy, and society that relies on it to thrive.”[2] Poorly funded schools often have less-experienced and qualified teachers or infrastructure problems, including inadequate heating/cooling systems or pest infestations. And most depressing to me is the fact that society is willing to tolerate the high levels of inequality that afflict our fellow students.
What Professor Robinson foregrounded in our conversation, and what is often overlooked, is what the American education system gets “right.” For example, the American education system includes many dedicated teachers, heavily invested in their students’ well-being and academic achievement. Many teachers spend their own money to ensure their classrooms are adequately supplied. My grandma was a kindergarten teacher for over 40 years, so I am acutely aware of the hard work teachers put in day in and day out. Professor Robinson also highlighted the potential for law and policy reforms to help build a stronger and more effective education system, just as it has helped build the unequal one that we have today.
On Monday, October 21, the ERI is holding an event titled “Celebrating Title VI at 60 and the Education Rights Institute at 1,” to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and the first anniversary of the founding of the ERI. The event is scheduled from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Caplin Pavilion.[3] Professor Robinson will moderate two morning panels where legal and education experts will discuss current issues affecting whether students receive a high-quality education, including race and national origin discrimination, the impact of Title VI, and the intersection between education and civil rights. The first panel, at 9:15 a.m., focuses on race and national origin discrimination; the second panel, at 10:45 a.m., will focus on the impact of Title VI. Be sure to catch the 12:30 p.m. keynote address by Catherine E. Lhamon, assistant secretary for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Education. A networking reception will follow the keynote address and lunch.
Professor Robinson ended our conversation with a call to action for UVA Law students. “Join us as we work to understand and improve education. We need your help.” Whether that’s supporting the ERI’s research, writing law review articles or op-eds for newspapers, or working as an RA for Professor Robinson,[4] there are so many ways we can reduce inequalities in education and help all students enjoy access to a high-quality education.
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tqy7zz@virginia.edu
[1] The great thing about law is that at least one poor sap (i.e. a judicial clerk) HAS to read your work.
[2] University of Virginia Law Establishes Education Rights Institute, https://www.insightintodiversity.com/university-of-virginia-law-establishes-education-rights-institute/.
[3] Lunch provided; first come, first served.
[4] Apply if interested.