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This was one of the most widely read essays ever published by The Atlantic.
US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has described education as “the civil rights issue of the twenty-first century” on numerous occasions. Though he and others who use the phrase never follow it with an explanation of how education should be used to advance civil rights, the slogan continues to have considerable currency among both Democrats and Republicans. Some of the other public officials who have borrowed this phrase include former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg (and his Chancellor Joel Klein), former President Bill Clinton, and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (for a critique of facile associations between education and civil rights, see Barry 2011; Jones 2014; Ravitch 2012, 2013; Rogers 2013).
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Noguera, P.A., Pierce, J.C. & Ahram, R. Race, Education, and the Pursuit of Equality in the Twenty-First Century. Race Soc Probl 7, 1–4 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12552-014-9139-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12552-014-9139-9