The Union County Retired Teachers Association invites anyone who supports public education for all to an informative lecture by Dr. Derek Black on December 7, 2023, at 5:00 p.m. at Clinton High School’s Little Theater. The lecture is described as outlining “the vital importance of public education to American democracy and history that public education and democracy share” and is open to the public. Dr. Derek Black is a former student of retired Clinton HS English teacher DeWayne Emert, President-Elect of the Tennessee Retired Teachers Association.who taught English at CHS for 39 years. Dr. Black is a professor in institutional law, civil rights, and education law at the University of South Carolina Law School.

The following is taken from online descriptions of the book and author:

Public education as we know it is in trouble. Derek W. Black, a legal scholar and tenacious advocate, shows how major democratic and constitutional developments are intimately linked to the expansion of public education throughout American history.
Today's current schooling trends -- the declining commitment to properly fund public education and the well-financed political agenda to expand vouchers and charter schools -- present a major assault on the democratic norms that public education represents and risk undermining one of the unique accomplishments of American society.