Separate Is Still Not Equal. Where’s The Outrage?
[su_right_ad]The Warren court unanimously held in 1954 that separate is not equal. Today, due to the concentration of poverty, far too many American children are being taught in over-crowded classrooms with inexperienced teachers with substandard materials. Robert Reich asks why we’re not discussing the fundamental outrage of schools and race.
In a few days, a higher portion of America’s black children will begin school in classrooms without any white children than before the Supreme Court’s historic “Brown v. Board of Education” decision. The reason isn’t official segregation by race but unofficial residential segregation by income. Since poor kids are disproportionately black and brown, and America’s poor now live in vast geographic concentrations of poverty, their schoolmates are also likely to be black and brown. And due to the concentration of poverty, the local tax bases whose revenues supply those schools with 40% of their funding are shrinking — with the result that they’ll start school in overcrowded classrooms with inexperienced teachers and inadequate materials. As the Warren court unanimously held in 1954, separate is not equal. It still isn’t.
A shooting in Ferguson, Mo. triggers a national discussion about police and race. Important as that is, we’re not talking about the even more fundamental outrage of schools and race. Why?
tiredoftea August 30th, 2014 at 1:31 pm
Why? A shrinking middle class, the rise of private schools, a political party that has destroyed the federal government’s ability to protect the vulnerable and local school boards that prefer to demonize teachers rather than address the real issues of ineffective schools.
mea_mark August 30th, 2014 at 1:38 pm
I would say the Oligarchy are taking care of those at the top and ignoring those at the bottom by manipulating government and getting laws passed that favor the haves and disadvantages the have-nots.
Eric Trommater August 30th, 2014 at 2:23 pm
Another factor is the loss of manufacturing jobs to outsourcing. These types of jobs allowed my parents and my grandparents generation to make sure their children had a better life because manual labor paid well enough for them to live in areas with good schools and even put them through college.
tiredoftea August 30th, 2014 at 2:27 pm
Yes, you are correct. Keep in mind that the original outsourcing efforts went to southern states that promoted right to work laws that started the decline of unions. With those good jobs went the secondary suppliers and local retail stores, restaurants and other community employment. Coupled with the “white flight” to the suburbs and the decline of our inner cities was accelerated.
mmaynard119 August 31st, 2014 at 8:05 pm
T2 – that can be summed up in one word – ALEC
edmeyer_able August 30th, 2014 at 1:35 pm
A new way of funding schools has to be implemented, using property taxes simply isn’t working. Perhaps using an increase to the state sales tax would be worth exploring.
mea_mark August 30th, 2014 at 1:47 pm
All the money collected in a state needs to go into a pool and then be divided equally among the schools depending on the number of students. It really isn’t complicated, the rich just don’t like it because they want their children to be superior to the children of the poor.
R.J. Carter August 30th, 2014 at 2:09 pm
I’m sure Chicago will get behind the funding of schools in rural Southern Illinois to improve them so that they’re as good as the Chicago inner city schools.
Eric Trommater August 30th, 2014 at 2:14 pm
The rural schools in every state can make the same case.
R.J. Carter August 30th, 2014 at 2:22 pm
Yes, but it’s almost a surety that Chicago collects more in taxes than the rest of the state, so it would seem that the lower 80% of the state would reap the benefits under that plan.
mea_mark August 30th, 2014 at 3:40 pm
Some tweeking might be necessary where the cost of land is extremely high to build a school but all in all if the cost to educate are the same the pot should be divided more or less equally.
Eric Trommater August 30th, 2014 at 2:13 pm
You assume that money is the only thing holding these schools back and that is simply not the case. Education spending is part of entire cultural picture but there are plenty of examples where huge amounts of money were dumped into schools with no tangible improvement in either test scores or graduation rates.
mea_mark August 30th, 2014 at 3:34 pm
No, I was not assuming that. I was replying about a tax issue.
tiredoftea August 30th, 2014 at 2:06 pm
That’s why we have lotteries!;-)
R.J. Carter August 30th, 2014 at 2:08 pm
The Shirley Jackson variety?
tiredoftea August 30th, 2014 at 2:11 pm
You literary savant, you!
edmeyer_able August 30th, 2014 at 2:08 pm
Someone once said the lottery is a tax on the stupid, wish I could get back the few $$ I spent years ago.
Cosmic_Surfer August 30th, 2014 at 2:01 pm
The whole point of vouchers for parochial schools is to promote separation once again. The rise of both denominational and nondenominational private schools is to separate by class thereby assuring a separation by race and even religion…
The same with Pre-school. Kids who go to pre-school (a middle class to wealthy phenomena) are better socialized and excel while those who don’t (generally lower middle class to poor) are often left out and left behind.
The only way to resolve this is to assure equality in education by giving all children regardless of class, race, location, and/or religious preference the same educational opportunities…
Here goes my socialism again. Screw private schools – eliminate them and pour the money into all schools. Want your kid separate – home school the kid and don’t expect a dime of funds.
As far as pre-school – either provide it for all (or eliminate it entirely)
tiredoftea August 30th, 2014 at 2:15 pm
Public schools were successful in “democratizing” our society for close to a century. Why destroy a success unless a functioning democracy is not a good thing?
Eric Trommater August 30th, 2014 at 2:18 pm
I don’t call that socialism. There are certain things that can’t be privatized. If the cost of water becomes too much for people to drink it they can’t simply stop using it. If the cost of electricity becomes too much i can’t simply say it is a luxury I can’t afford because the state would take away my kids. If the cost of education becomes too high there is not a option where we can just opt out and get by on what we can pick up on the streets.
Cosmic_Surfer August 30th, 2014 at 8:48 pm
Definition of socialism is the community good and all things for the common good. Public education, water treatment, roads, highways…are socialist
Eric Trommater August 30th, 2014 at 2:08 pm
Reich has a great point but there also the issue of urban gentrification. Traditionally minority areas are more and becoming dressed up as middle class suburbs with easy access to downtown. To get rid of the previous occupants taxes are being raised to a point where low income families can no longer afford housing in those area and a kind of reverse urban flight is creating these Gerrymandered school districts which more or less contain the same racial diversity of the pre-Brown v. Board days.
The very first thing a middle class family looks at when relocating is the school system that their kids will be attending. I know, I did that when I decided to settle in Royal Oak outside Detroit as apposed to the more ethnically diverse areas like Pontiac. It, and the low interest loans that allowed me to make that choice, are a part of the white privilege I received simply by winning the genes lottery That was 15 years ago. Today those parts of Pontiac are increasingly white and middle class and the minorities who lived their were forced into even worse neighborhoods with even worse school systems. It is becoming the same outside every major city in America. In my opinion, Chicago today is as racially segregated as it was in 1964.
tiredoftea August 30th, 2014 at 2:19 pm
It’s not just money, but also teacher tenure issues where experienced teachers and staff are able to pick the schools they want to work. Teacher flight is also an issue to be solved.
“In my opinion, Chicago today is as racially segregated as it was in 1964.” As are many northern cities.
Robert M. Snyder August 30th, 2014 at 8:31 pm
“I decided to settle in Royal Oak outside Detroit as apposed to the more ethnically diverse areas like Pontiac. It, and the low interest loans that allowed me to make that choice, are a part of the white privilege I received simply by winning the genes lottery That was 15 years ago. Today those parts of Pontiac are increasingly white and middle class and the minorities who lived their were forced into even worse neighborhoods with even worse school systems.”
There is a simple solution to your dilemma: Go to a minority neighborhood, find a nice, hard-working family who lost the genes lottery, and offer to trade your house for theirs. You claim that you’ve enjoyed your house for 15 years due to white privilege. So isn’t it about time to let someone else have a turn? It is within your power to create “black privilege” for one black family. Just give them the privilege of owning your home in exchange for theirs. What’s stopping you?