Img source: nmaahc.si.edu
May 16, 2024 Story by: Publisher
Seventy years after the landmark Supreme Court decision that aimed to end segregation in schools, a significant portion of Americans believe that more efforts are needed to racially integrate educational institutions.
A recent Washington Post-Ipsos survey revealed that 86 percent of U.S. adults support the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, which prohibited racial segregation in public schools. While 90 percent of White Americans back the decision, only 80 percent of Black Americans share this support.
Despite the integration brought about by Brown v. Board, one-third of Black Americans feel that it has not improved the quality of education for Black students.
School segregation remains a contemporary issue, though 56 percent of U.S. adults believe schools are less racially segregated than they were 30 years ago. Conversely, 30 percent of Black Americans see no change over the past three decades.
Jalisa Evans, CEO and founder of the Black Educator Advocates Network, told The Hill that as white students left school districts to avoid integration, redlining continued to perpetuate segregated schools through housing policies.
“Today, schools with large numbers of Black students are underfunded,” Evans explained.
A December 2022 report by the Education Trust found that districts with the highest populations of Black, Latino, and Native American students receive considerably less state and local funding compared to districts with fewer students of color.
The report indicated that districts with predominantly nonwhite students receive over $2,000 less per student than those with predominantly white students. For a district with 5,000 students, this funding gap amounts to $13.5 million in missing resources.
The Washington Post-Ipsos survey highlighted that nearly 68 percent of Americans believe more actions should be taken to integrate schools. Nearly two-thirds of White Americans agree on the need for further integration efforts.
Most Black Americans support various proposals to reduce school segregation, with 79 percent in favor of creating more magnet schools and 73 percent supporting the redrawing of school boundaries to foster more diverse districts. However, nearly 80 percent of white respondents support the idea of “letting students go to the local school in their community, even if it means that most of the students would be of the same race.” Source: The Hill
Among Black Americans, opinions are more divided. Fifty-one percent believe students should attend their local school even if it means racial homogeneity, while 45 percent prefer transferring students to other schools to achieve greater integration, despite the potential for increased travel.
