Taught By:
Kendall Deas
Assistant Professor of Education Policy, Law, and Politics
University of South Carolina
Read profile here.
Motivation to Teach Social Action:
I am interested in participating in this institute hosted by Rollins College for course development because I would like to draw upon my experiences as an engaged scholar in my surrounding community as a public education advocate with my non-profit organization the Quality Education Project (QEP) to develop a social change course in education policy to be offered by the Department of African American Studies at the University of South Carolina for students with a focus upon encouraging policymakers within the South Carolina General Assembly to develop and implement policies that support traditional public education in our state of South Carolina.
Course Description:
Given the current political climate in our state concerning issues such as the use of school choice policy, I am anticipating that some students may be interested in addressing the issue of using public taxpayer dollars to support families who desire to send their children to private or parochial schools in South Carolina. Students who believe that this policy takes valuable financial resources away from our state's struggling public schools may choose to address this issue in their campaigns. In addition, because it is tied to this current education policy debate in our state, students taking this course may adopt in their campaigns the importance of educating state policymakers about the shortcomings of embracing school choice policy when it comes to improving public schools, existing resources to support them (i.e. both human and financial capital), and providing access to a quality public education for those students who are largely from communities of color that despite receiving school vouchers are still unable to attend private or parochial schools due to cost and transportation logistics, and rely upon their neighborhood schools for a quality public education.
