School Desegregation: 55-Year Progress Report
It was 55-years ago today that our country took a major step toward racial equality that began in public schools and created a wave of changes known as the Civil Rights Movement.
So today, 55 years later, how has this landmark case known as Brown vs. The Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas benefited children of all color?
"I think Justice Warren talked about the fact that equal opportunity to an education is perhaps one of those important things we as a society could provide," according to Ochs Center For Metropolitan Studies President & CEO David Eichenthal.
Ochs Center looked at local student performance through the lens of race. While a lot has changed and benefited non-white school children in a half-century there's still what Eichenthal calls a "separate and unequal" education system in Tennessee.
Eichenthal said Tennessee's BEP school funding formula is to blame because it gives more tax dollars to rural schools than those in urban and suburban areas.
"Because 65% of African-American and Latino students are concentrated in more urban and metropolitan school districts in the state, the affect of the state funding formula is to effectively discriminate against African-American and Latino students," Eichenthal explained.
Hamilton County's School Superintendent, Dr. Jim Scales, said he's just one example of someone who has benefited from Brown V. Board and knows first-hand that the ruling has benefitted an entire generation of people. He adds there's still a lot of changes needed to bring true equality.
"Have we made the kind of progress that we need to make," Dr. Scales asked. "Well the answer to that is no but we've made significant progress in terms of providing education opportunities for all ethnic groups in the country."
Dr. Scales said local community organizations like the Benwood Foundation have taken the Supreme Court's intent a step further by giving private dollars to schools and children at most risk of falling through the cracks.
The Public Education Foundation's Dan Challener said Monday that in the last five years the gap between African American and white student achievement is closing with minority perfomance improving in math and language by about 20% or better. Benwood Initiative schools, which are predominatly African-American, are now very close to performance levels achieved by white students.
"It is that all students are making gains and the low income students, minority students, who are further behind are making the greatest gains," Challener said.
Dr. Scales said more funds should be directed toward children who are economically disadvantaged, not just African-American or other minority groups, to reap the full benefits of Supreme Court rulings like Brown v. Board.
