Brown v. Board of Education Redux: Today's Campaign for Fiscal Equity
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A Rally "Get the Job Done" on July 20 at Liberty Pole demanding the NY State Government enact REAL school funding reform will symbolize the failure of legislators, or more precisely the resistance from racist representatives in the NY Senate, to fulfill judicial orders from today as well as the past.
The US Supreme Court a half-century ago declared that racial segregation in public schools deprived students of equal opportunities. A year ago, June 2003, the Supreme Court of New York declared in Campaign for Fiscal Equity, Inc. Et Al. v. State of New York, that New York City school children have been denied a "sound, basic education. Tens of thousands of students are placed in overcrowded classrooms, taught by unqualified teachers, and provided with inadequate facilities and equipment," read the majority opinion, which described the educational crisis as "a systemic failure." The victims are the most vulnerable children, the state's poorest and poorest-performing students. The recent ruling reflects upon the fact that 50 years following the landmark Brown v.. Board decision, most African-American children in New York remain far behind whites in educational opportunities. In Brown, the Court rejected the plaintiffs' demands to be permitted immediately to attend schools on a non-racial basis. Instead the Court deferred to "moderate" segregationists by making clear that it would refrain from insisting upon a quick transition to nonracial schooling. It would suffice, the Court declared, for desegregation to proceed "with all deliberate speed." A decade after Brown, a little more than 1 percent of black children in the south were attending integrated schools. And since, integration has not improved much beyond those statistics - north or south. In CFE. Et Al. v. State of New York, the Court of Appeals left the work of figuring out the costs, funding sources and academic standards to Gov. George Pataki and the State Legislature. And the justices gave them more than a year -- plenty of time -- to present a consensus plan. With the court's reform deadline of July 30th now approaching without a legislative resolution, it appears that conservative resistance to integration - this time the integration of school funding - is alive and well in Albany. In Monroe County, suburban schools are 95 percent white, the percentage of white faculty members is seemingly higher than that. Although these schools do have many janitors who are black, which teaches students other lessons on integration. In the city, only 14% of the students are white and often they segregate themselves just as black students do in the suburbs. The discrepancies in school funding are made clear by suburban school' acquisition of numerous stadiums and Olympic-size pools while the city schools devise a "Nickel for Nurses" campaign. Howard Eagle, a Rochester City School Teacher and activist, had the following insights in an article titled, The Myth Of Dismantling Racial Segregation Within The U.S. Public School System: Chasing Pipe Dreams, submitted to Education Week Magazine in 2002 and subsequently rejected publication. The plain, simple truth is that, despite the U.S. Supreme Court's Decision in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case; thousands of citizens' protests, marches, and demonstrations in the streets; massive busing efforts; federal enforcement efforts, including the use of soldiers in numerous cases; sit-ins, teach-ins, and love-ins on the part of liberals, militants, and "revolutionaries" of every stripe, especially during the 1960's and 70's --- the U.S. never even came remotely close to achieving full (defacto, as opposed to dejure) desegregation within the vast majority of its public schools… Indeed, there is a need to carefully consider what will happen to the generations of predominantly black and brown children who are currently left with no choices, except attending segregated, under-funded, relatively poor, urban public schools. One thing is certain: If their academic well being and progress is dependent upon the unlikely advent of racial integration --- such students will not become beneficiaries of significantly improved educational opportunities. Until and unless decisive, and probably mass action is taken --- professor Merelman*.is absolutely correct regarding his contention that... "poor black parents, underfunded [so-called] minority school districts, and low-tax-base, largely black cities [will] continue their losing struggle to come up with educational money they don't have." There is absolutely no question about the fact that the cause (demand for equitable public education funding, and equality regarding educational opportunities for all children now) is a just one! The cause is in fact the same one in 2004 that produced the well intentioned, but largely ineffective Brown Decision of 1954. Lastly, Eagle is asking people of more privilege, from segregated suburban communities, to follow through with their high ideals of equality. Integration representing part of the solution relative to the crisis in urban, public education, is an issue and question that is largely dependent upon the commitment of its advocates, especially white persons. For those who are serious about their belief in the morality and value of racial integration, and truly committed to bringing it into existence, huge numbers of white people in particular, must necessarily be willing to confront the deep-seated, irrational, racism harbored in the hearts and minds of their mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, neighbors and colleagues. Join the "GET THE JOB DONE!" Rally today, Tuesday, July 20, 5:30 p.m. at Liberty Pole on East Main St. and tell our local representatives to 1) Enact Real School Funding Reform & 2) Adopt a budget. -Howard Eagles' full article The Myth Of Dismantling Racial Segregation Within The U.S. Public School System: Chasing Pipe Dreams is at : http://rochester.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/2507 - Eagles' comments at a recent Rochester City School Budget Hearing are published at http://rochester.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/2231. He was cut off in the middle of his comments by the City Council at the April 22 Budget Hearings, despite the attending crowds applause and support that Eagle be allowed to finish. Eagle is on the list of speakers scheduled for the "Get the Job Done!" Rally. An essay by Tammy Gurowski, president of Webster Central PTSA, on the CFE case and its impact on the suburbs of Rochester is at www.cfequity.org/Clippings/7-17-04DemocratChronicle.htm *Richard M. Merelman is a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The article referenced is Dis-Integrating American
Public Schools, Education Week Magazine, Feb. 6, 2002, www.edweek.org/ew/newstory.cfm?slug=21merelman.h21#author
