Today marks the 65th anniversary of Brown vs. the Board of Education of Topeka, the landmark Supreme Court ruling that outlawed racial segregation in public schools, ordering states to end segregation "with all deliberate speed." The court made clear that separate was not and could not be equal.
But according to the Economic Policy Institute, black and brown children "are more racially and socioeconomically isolated today than at any time since data have been available." The social and political will to continue on with the task of integrating schools has diminished. With court decisions limiting Brown; the privatization of schools and the school choice movement; and segregated neighborhoods, our nation's school system looks far too much like that of the 1950s.
America's schools were not founded to educate all children to high levels. Our school system was, and continues to be, a mechanism to perpetuate racial and economic stratification. Brown and the civil rights movement forced us to see that black Americans were being treated as second-class citizens, but the goals of full integration and access have never been met. The Arkansas Constitution promises a quality and equal education to all Arkansas students--but we've always fallen far short of that promise.
Just as in the pre-Brown era, children of color are getting fewer educational resources and lower-quality educational opportunities. They go to schools with worse facilities and larger class sizes. They have less access to advanced curricula and programs. They are more likely to be taught by newer, less-experienced teachers than their white peers. They are more likely to go to a school with a police officer but no counselor, and more likely to be suspended or expelled.
Make no mistake, fewer opportunities lead to less success academically. In 2015, 59 percent of black boys and 65 percent of Latino boys graduated from public high school, compared to 80 percent of white, non-Latino boys.
The most shocking truth is we know how to solve many of these opportunity gaps in ways that will boost opportunity for all kids. The research is crystal-clear: Providing early childhood education and quality after-school and summer programs, improving teacher quality and cultural competency, addressing the symptoms and causes of poverty, reforming discipline policies, and investing in family and neighborhood development are all proven solutions to our education challenges.
Here in Little Rock, the Arkansas Public Policy Panel is one of many organizations around the country fighting to advance the true intentions of Brown. We see how the lack of these policies and efforts are negatively impacting our schools. The gaps between wealthy and poor school districts are wider now than ever. We are failing to invest in improving our early childhood education system. Despite creating the infrastructure for an after-school and summer program over a decade ago, Arkansas has never invested any tax dollars into it. We've failed to meet the most basic needs of our special education programs.
After Arkansas' Supreme Court found our school system unconstitutionally inadequate and unequal in 2002, bipartisan groups of lawmakers and community leaders pushed through major research-proven solutions that led to over a decade of progress on improving our overall education performance, but we've never been willing to invest in closing the opportunity gaps. Now Arkansas is backsliding.
Over the past five years, our lawmakers have cut our state quality standards. They've been distracted by the false promise of charter and voucher schemes that have no evidence they improve learning but are segregating our students, causing neighborhood schools to close, and creating inefficient separate and unequal school systems throughout the state. These charter and voucher schemes now cost the state millions of squandered educational dollars annually while proven education solutions remain unfunded. For the first time in two decades, our education system is getting worse instead of better.
It doesn't have to be this way. While the federal government has a mandate to ensure the promise of Brown is implemented, it has made it clear it will continue to shirk that responsibility. Instead, it will fall to us locally to ensure our schools are equally serving black and brown students. We know from our work that it can be done.
Communities across Arkansas are creating solutions within their reach. In Prescott, they have created early childhood reading programs and reformed their discipline policies. Residents from across the state have stood together against creating new private-school voucher schemes that will further segregate our schools and leave them depleted of the resources they need to excel.
Three generations of children have gone through our schools since 1954, when Brown was decided. While there have been gains in educational achievement for black and brown students, they have not kept pace with that of white students. It is up to us to ensure that children are no longer subject to that inequity.
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Bill Kopsky is the executive director of the Arkansas Public Policy Panel, a 501(c)(3) organization founded in 1963 dedicated to the advancement of social and economic justice through respect for human dignity, diversity, empowerment and an inclusive, fair and transparent political process.
Editorial on 05/17/2019