Collegiate Times

Wasn?t Brown vs. the Board of Education supposed to end racial segregation? More than 50 years since that groundbreaking decision, there?s still controversy regarding the segregation and desegregation of schools in America.

Hartford, Conn. is facing difficulty in uniting two large school districts: one predominately rich and white ? the other, isolated in large towns, made up of mostly poor minorities. According to the Associated Press, the city?s goal is to desegregate the schools in order to clear Connecticut of its position as a defendant in the longest-running desegregation lawsuit in the nation. The problems keeping the merge from occurring in the past have always been a lack of money, few resources to build schools and no means to pay for transferring students and required special services. However, now the concern has become the reluctance of school officials to integrate students with deficiencies, as they do not want the new school to be labeled as failing under the No Child Left Behind Act. Essentially, school officials are worried that if students from a minority background are combined with students from a well-off background, the overall status of the school ? indicated by standardized test scores ? will decrease. While the effort to desegregate school districts is to be praised, unfortunately it seems as if it is a few decades too late.

While there might be controversy over desegregation in the Constitution State an effort in the right direction is being made. The Nebraska state legislature voted last Thursday to divide the Omaha school system into three districts based on race ? one mostly black, another largely white and one predominately Hispanic. According to the Associated Press, Sen. Ernie Chambers, the legislature?s only black senator, actually argued that this decision was not meant to promote or create segregation, adding that the school system is basically already segregated, whether acknowledged or not. Many say that it would be beneficial to students of one race to have their own school district, as this would grant them more power to represent their students? interests on the school board.

While this very well may be true, rather than instituting segregation as an excuse for its current shortcomings in racial tolerance, the Omaha school district should be promoting equal representation for all social groups. Why not find a solution to the problem rather than put forth a quick, and ultimately backwards, fix like segregation? The fact that a school board is predominately white should not matter, as the decisions they make should serve all students. Regardless of race. It?s 2006 ? we should be able to interact with people of different races on a regular basis and be respectful of their identity and ideas, especially in an educational environment.

The bottom line is that it?s unfair to have school districts separated along racial or socioeconomic boundaries. While the situation in Hartford is far from acceptable for this day in age, at least it is moving in a direction that allows greater educational opportunity for minority groups. The thing about public schools, is that they are public, indicating that all students are entitled to an equal education.