An education apartheid still reigns in America's schools

WASHINGTON — Last week, America marked the 55th anniversary of Thurgood Marshall's historic Supreme Court victory in Brown v. Board of Education.

If Marshall were still alive, however, he would urge us to stop celebrating 1954 and start accepting responsibility for our complicity in the creation of a "separate but equal" education apartheid system — with one method of instruction for the poor and another for the privileged.

In theory, the Brown decision represents the most hopeful strains of the American narrative: working within a system of laws to extend the promise of freedom, more fairly and fully, to each succeeding generation.

"In the field of public education," in a unanimous decision the Warren Court wrote, "the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place," and the opportunity to learn "is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms."

Civil rights advocates everywhere were joyous. The Chicago Defender proclaimed May 17, 1954, as "the beginning of the end of the dual society in American life and the system of segregation that supports it." Marshall himself remembered feeling "so happy I was numb."

In practice, unfortunately, integrated schools today are as much of a dream now as they were then, yet the subject of segregation has all but disappeared from the national conversation about education reform. Worse still, many of the newest and most promising schools in our nation's cities are actually increasing the racial stratification of young people and communities — not lessening it.

Providing 'separate but equal' facilities, it seems, has once again become an acceptable justification for allowing an inequitable schooling system to exist.

In this system, some schools receive ample funding, while others scrape by. Some schools are filled with passionate, experienced educators, while others are flooded with passionate, inexperienced rookies.

And while one child is being taught that the key to success is finding the right, multiple-choice answer to other people's questions, another is learning that success comes from finding one's voice and discovering one's rightful place in the world.

Which child is more likely to do well in life, and in a democratic society? Certainly, the one who is taught to think critically, reflect and ask questions.