CHILD ADVOCACY AND MAC: HUBIE JONES’ LEGACY

(Remarks made by Jerry Mogul, MAC Executive Director, at the Hubie Jones Tribute)

Let me say a few words about children and about advocacy, the reason Hubie brought MAC into the world and the reason we are still joined at the hip.  Hubie said it best, so let me quote him:

We do not merely have a social responsibility to assure that our children and youth have decent life chances and prosper. We have a sacred obligation to do so. 

And another quote:

Advocacy is not about in one day and out the next, in one month and out the next.  The issues we’re concerned about mean having a lifetime commitment to children.

Hubie Jones defined advocacy for children 35 years ago.  His Task Force on Children Out of School not only uncovered the scandal of over 10,000 children who were pushed out and excluded from the Boston Public Schools, but also the shame of innumerable children with disabilities who were misdiagnosed, warehoused, stigmatized and educationally languishing in separate classrooms.  That report, and the subsequent passage of Chapter 766, the special education law in Massachusetts, was, to Hubie, among the most important legacies and contributions of his career.  Thousands upon thousands of children, previously deemed unteachable, now go to school in the least restrictive environment where they can learn, grow, and succeed with dignity and without stigma.  .  

Hubie Jones, and the advocacy which led to the creation of MAC, was 30 years ahead of his time.  The now-familiar mantra of Leave No Child Behind is nothing but the resounding echo of a lone voice, then a few more, and more and more and more until it has grown into a chorus and a societal goal that can no longer be denied. 

But beware those who borrow slogans and rest easy when a law is passed.  For Hubie Jones and MAC learned a hard lesson in those early, heady days of great victories, a lesson that is no less true today.  In his words: “You may get a victory, you may get a concession, they may be put in place, but you’d better be there to monitor what is going on”.  Advocacy for children takes nothing for granted. 

So Hubie and MAC spent years not only fighting to create new laws to benefit children- school breakfast, lead poisoning prevention, for example-  but also fought to implement the special education law and took on the legislative and institutional forces that attempted to weaken it.  Hubie himself led the State House rally on the 25^th anniversary of the special education law when it faced its greatest peril.  Advocacy for children cannot rest.

MAC continues to follow the trail blazed by Hubie, faithful to his methods and to the substance of the work he has set before us.  There are issues that require constant vigilance: mobilizing the community to assure educational excellence and equity in the Boston Public Schools for all children, particularly those of color; informing ever new generations of parents about their rights under the special education law for their children with disabilities, and holding school districts accountable to meet the letter and the spirit of that law.  Advocacy for children is a life-time commitment.

And then there are new issues emerging, new barriers uncovered:  the growing numbers of children diagnosed with autism, the hidden trauma experienced by children who witness domestic violence and how it affects their ability to learn and behave in the classroom, MCAS, Boston’s school assignment policy, and the educational crisis facing boys.  Advocacy for children builds on the past, but can’t live there.  It finds and faces new challenges.

Advocacy resides in the world of both politics and policy.  In both those worlds, there are ebbs and flows of support for advocacy, whether among public institutions or private funders.   Sometimes other trends, like partnerships or collaboration, appear and catch the fancy of policy-makers.  But as long as there is institutional neglect, institutional indifference, institutional incompetence, or institutional abuse that harms children and prevents them from reaching their potential, partnerships and collaboration will never be enough.   Advocacy for children is not a fashion, it is, in Hubie’s words, a sacred obligation.

Thank you from all of us at MAC, for your support of child advocacy, that most important legacy of Hubie Jones.