RACIAL JUSTICE AND EDUCATION

American schools offer high-quality education, but our children receive unequal educational opportunities. Many disparities fall along racial and ethnic lines. Children of color are more likely to go to poorer schools with fewer resources, across the country. Every student should have a fair chance to reach his or her full educational potential. Opportunity and equality are not just core American values, they are core legal principles that have been upheld by federal courts.

In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled that the system of racial segregation in the schools in the South violated the United States Constitution (Brown v. Board of Education). This decision, now more than 50 years old, and the cases that followed it, forced major change, bringing an end to formal segregation in Southern schools. And yet, in the past two decades, it's become worse than ever, nationwide: children are being denied access to opportunity and diversity. Our public schools are as segregated as they were before Brown. Worse still, school districts that try to address these racial disparities are under attack -- even in school systems that have had a history of mandatory racial segregation.

Two recent cases involving programs that address racial isolation and try to provide equal educational opportunities to all children, regardless of race, have just been decided by the current Supreme Court. The Court heard arguments from Seattle and Louisville, Kentucky, and the outcome of these cases affects millions of children nationwide. The court ruled that the two programs were unconstitutional. But the majority of the Court, by one vote, found that diversity is still a "compelling state interest."

The public schools in Louisville, Kentucky, were found to be "officially" segregated by a federal judge in 1973. It was court-ordered to desegrate in 1975 and court-monitored until 2000. At that point, the Board of Education adopted a policy to try to ensure that schools didn't become re-segregated, setting goals for most schools to achieve some racial balance to generally reflect the population of the district as a whole. This policy is only a small part of an overall effort that still has a long way to go to ensure equal educational opportunities for all kids. In this case, the school district was dinged for trying to maintain what it had previously been court-ordered to do.

In Seattle, though the schools were never deemed segregated by a court, the city has struggled with widespread school segregation throughout the past fifty years. Seattle's children of color face numerous obstacles in accessing equal educational opportunities. The city has acknowledged these issues and has tried many remedies, and its most recent plan for ensuring diversity is under attack by parents.

Although it's been more than fifty years since Brown v. Board of Education, segregation and racist attitudes are not a thing of the past. If there are no policies in place to help keep schools representative of their larger home communities, the battles for desegregation would have to be fought in court again and again as schools fall in and out of a segregation/desegregation cycle.

Every student should have a fair chance to reach his or her full educational potential and be educated in integrated settings. Opportunity and equality are not just core American values, they are core legal principles that the federal courts have upheld in the past. We are still feeling the effects of a long legacy of segregation and racial discrimination in this country, particularly in public education. Programs that try to make sure student bodies are diverse, and that all children have an equal opportunity to succeed, even young children, can only benefit us in the long run.

For more information:
United States State Department's May 2007 Fact Sheet
Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education
Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1
Brown v. Board of Education