In nearly 62 years since the decision of Brown v. Board of Education (1954), there is still much ongoing debate about the role of education in the United States of America. This case set the moral standard for the nation and initiated a process that broke up the band of white supremacy which dominated society. The court case ruled that segregation in Kansas schools were a direct violation of the 14th Amendment (‘equal protection clause’). Darby & Levy (2011) expressed, “While Brown v. Board of Education invalidated the formal inequality of racially segregated schools, it is hardly surprising that this ruling did not suffice to eliminate inequalities in educational quality, or that substantial racial disparities in both educational funding …show more content…
and achievement remain many years later” (p. 352) There are two opposing views in relation to the role of education in the United States. The first, traditional view goes hand in hand with the functionalist perspective in that through hard work and determination one can achieve anything. An example of this viewpoint would be that life-long pursuit of the “American Dream.’’ This ideal is based on the premise that success and prosperity and upward social class mobility can be achieved through diligent work with few or no obstacles. One such obstacle promoted segregation by the use of restrictive covenants. According to John Farley (2012), “a restrictive covenant is a provision attached to a deed or sales contract in which the buyer must agree not to sell or rent to a member of a specified group, such as blacks, Chicanos, or Jews. The second view, which is closely tied to the conflict perspective, states that social life is formed by individuals and/or groups who compete against each other for assets and rewards, resulting in the distribution of power, wealth, and/or status. The principle of the perspective deals with the model of life to include such things as ethnic, racial, and class inequality. According to Neckerman & Torche, “In the United States, economic disparities began to rise in the mid-1970s, and although the increase may have slowed recently, levels of inequality remain high compared with the three decades after World War II” (p.336, 2007). Economic efforts to balance the scales of inequality in employment, housing, and education have often resulting in the favor of the majority while the minority struggles to hang on. Funding in schools, especially public schools, is a major contributing factor in the inequalities minorities face in the education system.
Schools which are poorly funded do no tend to put out the level of education that minorities need in order to prosper in today’s society. Statistics of an evaluative report conducted by Senior Policy Analyst, Jason Richwine, noted that “In 2009, white public school eighth-graders outscored their black classmates by one standard deviation (equivalent to roughly two and a half years of learning) on the math portion of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) test. Racial differences in achievement like this one are pervasive in the U.S. education system, and the gaps have persisted for decades” (Richwine, p.1, …show more content…
2011). There are some theorists who feel that cultural and behavioral factors influence the level of education which minorities receive. The underlying theme is that these factors, external and internal of the education system, are set according to varying values and attitudes. The cultural deprivation theory states that the level of education that one sets to attain is based on the values and attitudes of the working class parents which differ from the majority culture. It establishes that differing beliefs, goals, and attitudes are a central point of why minorities are underachieving in school. This focal point rests upon the belief that the education of minorities is based upon the parental interest of parents and/or family. For example, if the parents do not enforce the importance of education then the child is likely to follow that same pattern which leads to underachievement. On the other hand, if parents and or family stress how important education, the child patterns after that behavior and achieves success in society. The cultural bias theory stresses that the values and attitude of the educators are a direct reflection upon the level of education in which minorities achieve.
If the teachers believe that their students are underachievers then they tend to favor those students who do show interest in their education and want to be a success. This theory rests upon the belief that inequality in the education system is directly tied to the values and attitudes of the teaching and learning environment of the schools. Darby & Levy (2011) noted, “A quality education is the key to developing our human capabilities. It enables us to achieve economic security and prosperity, participate in social and political processes that affect our interests, acquire additional knowledge and skills, and make informed choices in pursuit of our own conceptions of the good life”
(p.351). The “good life” and the “pursuit of happiness” are objectives that every red-blooded person strives towards. The obstacles in which minorities face in the pursuit of happiness to achieve that good life are parts of institutional racism put in place to oppress a race to underachieve. It is a blessing that there are educators that do not place biases upon their students. The duty of ‘we the people’; hard-working, taxpaying American citizens, is to put our differences, biases, preconceived notions, prejudices, discrimination, and/or racism aside and experience each other’s cultures. We will find that we have much more in common than meets the eye.
Before the decision of Brown v. Board of Education, many people accepted school segregation and, in most of the southern states, required segregation. Schools during this time were supposed to uphold the “separate but equal” standard set during the 1896 case of Plessy v. Ferguson; however, most, if not all, of the “black” schools were not comparable to the “white” schools. The resources the “white” schools had available definitely exceed the resources given to “black” schools not only in quantity, but also in quality. Brown v. Board of Education was not the first case that assaulted the public school segregation in the south. The title of the case was shortened from Oliver Brown ET. Al. v. the Board of Education of Topeka Kansas. The official titled included reference to the other twelve cases that were started in the early 1950’s that came from South Carolina, Virginia, Delaware and the District of Columbia. The case carried Oliver Brown’s name because he was the only male parent fighting for integration. The case of Brown v. Board o...
Brown v. Board of Education, which was the 1954 Supreme Court decision ordering America’s public schools to be desegregated, has become one of the most time-honored decisions in American constitutional law, and in American history as a whole. Brown has redefined the meaning of equality of opportunity, it established a principle that all children have a constitutional right to attend school without discrimination. With time, the principles of equality that were established, because of the Brown trial, extended beyond desegregation to disability, sexuality, bilingual education, gender, the children of undocumented immigrants, and related issues of civil equality.
The Supreme Court is perhaps most well known for the Brown vs. Board of Education decision in 1954. By declaring that segregation in schools was unconstitutional, Kevern Verney says a ‘direct reversal of the Plessy … ruling’1 58 years earlier was affected. It was Plessy which gave southern states the authority to continue persecuting African-Americans for the next sixty years. The first positive aspect of Brown was was the actual integration of white and black students in schools. Unfortunately, this was not carried out to a suitable degree, with many local authorities feeling no obligation to change the status quo. The Supreme Court did issue a second ruling, the so called Brown 2, in 1955. This forwarded the idea that integration should proceed 'with all deliberate speed', but James T. Patterson tells us even by 1964 ‘only an estimated 1.2% of black children ... attended public schools with white children’2. This demonstrates that, although the Supreme Court was working for Civil Rights, it was still unable to force change. Rathbone agrees, saying the Supreme Court ‘did not do enough to ensure compliance’3. However, Patterson goes on to say that ‘the case did have some impact’4. He explains how the ruling, although often ignored, acted ‘relatively quickly in most of the boarder s...
African Americans are still facing segregation today that was thought to have ended many years ago. Brown v. Board of Education declared the decision of having separate schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional. As Brown v. Board of Education launches its case, we see how it sets the infrastructure to end racial segregation in all public spaces. Today, Brown v. Board of Education has made changes to our educational system and democracy, but hasn’t succeeded to end racial segregation due to the cases still being seen today. Brown v. Board of Education to this day remains one of the most important cases that African Americans have brought to the surface for the good of the United States. Brown v. Board of Education didn’t just focus on children and education, it also focused on how important equality is even when society claimed that African Americans were treated equal, when they weren’t. This was the case that opened the eyes of many American’s to notice that the separate but equal strategy was in fact unlawful.
In order to understand the magnitude of the Brown v. Board of Education decision, one must understand the hardships that African-Americans had to endure. For example, the case of Davis Knight “illuminate[d] racially mixed communities [,] delineate[d] the legal and social responses to attempts at racial desegregation and black enfranchisement during the era of the New Deal and World War II” in 1948 (Bynum 248). Davis Knight was a 23 year old man from Mississippi who appeared to be a “white,” but indeed was a “black man, who later married a white woman by the name of Junie Lee Spradley” (247). The case was presented to the Jones County Circuit Court where Knigh...
Stereotypes are like scalp dandruff, unnecessary, ugly, and hard to get rid of, unless you have the right shampoo. That shampoo could symbolize proper education or enlightenment for getting rid of that particular stereotype. Some stereotypes are so absurd we sometimes wonder where the heck did they even originate from. For example, Asians are bad drivers, or white people cannot dance. However there is a type of stereotype that has some little truth to it, but you find it is not the people who we are stereotyping’s fault. To be more specific, there is a stereotypical view that poor minorities are sometimes considered uneducated. This lack of minorities’ education is not their fault, but the fault of unlikely outside forces. Therefore there is some truth to this particular stereotype, but the minorities are not to blame for their lack of education. Few opportunities are given to them, starting with housing then leading to schools which would then affect their individual education.
Brown v. Board of the Education in 1954 was a landmark decision in the education arena. The decision maintained that schools that separated students by the color of their skin could no longer be maintained. The court saw this as necessary, since in their mind schools for black students would always be inferior. This inferiority would not be caused by lack of resources, although that usually was a contributing factor to the poor quality of the school, physically and performance-wise. As the Supreme Court saw it, s...
In today’s world, the American still has barriers to overcome in the matter of racial equality. Whether it is being passed over for a promotion at the job or being underpaid, some people have to deal with unfair practice that would prevent someone of color or the opposite sex from having equal opportunity at the job. In 2004, Dukes vs. Wal-Mart Stores Incorporation was a civil rights class-action suite that ruled in favor of the women who worked and did not received promotions, pay and certain job assignments. This proves that some corporations ignore the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which protects workers from discrimination based on sex, race, religion or national origin.
America’s school system and student population remains segregated, by race and class. The inequalities that exist in schools today result from more than just poorly managed schools; they reflect the racial and socioeconomic inequities of society as a whole. Most of the problems of schools boil down to either racism in and outside the school or financial disparity between wealthy and poor school districts. Because schools receive funding through local property taxes, low-income communities start at an economic disadvantage. Less funding means fewer resources, lower quality instruction and curricula, and little to no community involvement. Even when low-income schools manage to find adequate funding, the money doesn’t solve all the school’s problems. Most important, money cannot influence student, parent, teacher, and administrator perceptions of class and race. Nor can money improve test scores and make education relevant and practical in the lives of minority students.
In the 1954 court ruling of Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court ruled that segregation of schools was unconstitutional and violated the Fourteenth Amendment (Justia, n.d.). During the discussion, the separate but equal ruling in 1896 from Plessy v. Ferguson was found to cause black students to feel inferior because white schools were the superior of the two. Furthermore, the ruling states that black students missed out on opportunities that could be provided under a system of desegregation (Justia, n.d.). So the process of classification and how to balance schools according to race began to take place.
Inequalities in Education Funding inequalities have been an issue from past to present, especially in the low-income communities. In fact, students in urban areas with less funding have low attendance, score lower on standardized testing, and a low graduation rate. Also subjected to outdated textbooks, old dilapidated buildings, students in the inner cities need to compete with their suburban and wealthy counterparts for this reason funding inequalities must end and more money should be directed to these communities from federal, state, and local governments. Frank Johnson, a writer for the National Center for Education Statistics, “Disparities in Public School Spending.”
In America, the idea of equality between people is important, it is in fact, written into the Constitution. However, for years the American educational system has operated in a completely inequitable manner due, in part, to the way that schools are funded, mostly through local or property taxes. The differences between schools in wealthy neighborhoods and those in poor neighborhoods are, many times, reminiscent of the differences between white schools and black schools before the end of segregation. While there is a desperate need to fix this broken system, there has been little progress. The issue is so divisive and the problem so big and entrenched in American laws, many politicians refuse to even attempt to come up with a solution. The answer lies with the federal government. To make American public schools equitable the federal government needs to step up its role in funding and administering the schools.
Even though the Brown v. Board of Education was 62 years ago, African Americans are still fighting to have an equal education opportunity. “But many schools are as segregated today as they were before the ruling, and black children throughout the United States are performing at the bottom of the American educational system” (Jackson 1). Nevertheless, it took decades of hard work and struggle by numerous African Americans for a better education system. Education is the key to success, it gives people the knowledge that they need to strive and become more intelligent thinkers, which leads to more opportunities for them in the job industry. Ever since the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which banned discrimination of any kind, African Americans have every right to have this equal educational opportunity like everyone else. But yet, they were stopped in their tracks by disapproving Americans, who confined the succession of African Americans in the education system. Now that we are in the 21st century, there’s still negligence on black’s education. The black community do not have equal education opportunities because of the lack of funding, poverty experienced by the children in the neighborhoods and society’s views of the black community.
Segregation in schools is real, it’s happening, and it’s not subtle. Brown VS the Board of Education, the groundbreaking case that ended the
Peske, Heather G., and Kati Haycock. "Teaching Inequality: How Poor and Minority Students Are Shortchanged on Teacher Quality: A Report and Recommendations by the Education Trust." Education Trust. N.p., June 2006. Web. 12 Jan. 2014.