Education and Civil Rights

If education is the civil rights issues of this generation, and states and districts will now have to compete for a significantly larger portion of their education funding, does that mean students are to compete for their civil rights?

That is a quote from the American Association of School Administrators' report on the state of school funding around the U.S. 
Read the press release and download the study here.
Thanks to SalineSchools for tweeting this.
I don't actually know that education IS the civil rights issue of this generation. I think there are lots of other issues--prisons, race, class, ethnicity, poverty--that could qualify. But it is a thought-provoking idea.