There are so many things I would like to write about before the year closes out. But, I am taking it one at a time for now. This has been a great week for Dallas Love Field with the end of the Wright Amendment. The Wright Amendment, named for former Fort Worth Congressman Jim Wright, was put in place to restrict commercial air traffic from Love Field airport in order to help a then emerging Dallas-Fort-Worth International airport flourish. Among the limitations imposed was that no commercial carrier could fly to a non-contiguous state from the Dallas airport. Those rules meant airlines that were housed at Dallas Love Field (such as Southwest airlines) had to first stop in other cities like Austin, St. Louis, Birmingham, or Houston in order to get to larger destinations from Dallas. This week brought an end to all those restrictions. Now, Southwest airlines and other airlines can fly coast-to-coast from Dallas Love Field airport. Consumers now have more options to choose from.
In education, we have similar restrictions like the Wright Amendment. However, these restrictions help protect all children and not an emerging entity. According to Titles IV and VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, all children in the United States are entitled to equal access to a public elementary and secondary education. This means despite their parents’ actual or perceived national origin, citizenship, or immigration status, all children have equal access to a quality education. This is one of the many things I love about this great nation. We are a nation founded on Biblical principles of compassion, generosity and kindness. We have all heard and seen on the news the influx of unaccompanied children in some states- Texas been one of these states. In view of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, states and local educational agencies are required to provide all children regardless of immigration status with equal access to public education at the elementary and secondary level. This includes children such as unaccompanied children who may be involved in immigration procedures.
Substantiating this equal access for all children is the United States Supreme Court case of Plyler v. Doe 457 U.S. 202 (1982). This case validated the fact that the State may not deny access to a basic public education to any child residing in the State, whether present in the United States legally or otherwise. The Court made it clear that denying innocent children access to a public education, “imposes a lifetime hardship on a discrete class of children not accountable for their disabling status. . . . And that by denying these children a basic education, we deny them the ability to live within the structure of our civic institutions, and foreclose any realistic possibility that they will contribute in even the smallest way to the progress of our Nation.” This explanation is cut clear on the responsibility we have to all children; who are the next leaders in all spheres of influence.
Let’s take good care of our future leaders. What we invest in them today will bear great dividends in the future.
"Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see." – John W. Whitehead