Education

The education system in America has had a tumultuous history and has been dominated by a lack of education support for people of color and a segregated education system. Many people assume that segregation in the school system ended with the 1954 supreme court case Brown v. Board of Education. Where the court declared segregated schools unconstitutional and called for integration. Initially, this call for integration was incredibly successful with the majority of minority children being in integrated schools by the 1980s. However, modern America has reverted back to segregated schools and is doing so at an alarming rate.

Segregation isn’t an issue of the past, it’s an issue that improved from the 1950s to the 1980s. But we now see that improvement diminishing, and segregation making a rebound. In almost every portion of the United States, the percentage of black students who are in schools that are 90-100% of minorities is increasing. In the South close to 30% of black students face this reality, in the Midwest close to 45%, and in the Northeast, about 50% of black students remain in majority-minority schools. Why is this an issue? Segregation in this system negatively impacts students of color far more than white students. Non-white schools tend to be in more impoverished areas and thus receive less funding and a lower quality of education in comparison to white schools. In fact, as of 2016, school districts with majority non-white students received $23 billion less than majority white students, despite having relatively the same number of students per district.

Education funding is tied almost entirely into housing and property taxes. Areas that tend to be poorer economically receive less funding for there schools thus hurting education. The housing policies of the 20th century resulted in the oppression of minority groups in gaining economic prosperity and that effect seeps into the school systems. When the federal government along with banks and the real estate industry all oppressed minority groups, it started a system of economic disparity that trickled into education. Check out this video to learn more in-depth about why this is possible and some of the factors that negatively impact minority students within the school system.

So Why are Segregated and Underfunded Schools an Issue?

A lack of proper funding in education which is prevalent in segregated schools that are comprised of majority-minority groups has immense effects on the communities and students. A lack of funding often leads underqualified teachers to be forced to teach subjects they themselves no little to nothing about. To add to this, the resources available to students in lower-income schools are highly limited and class sizes are overcrowded. These issues don't just apply to segregated schools, in integrated schools minority students are often placed in lower-track classes and face some of the same issues of segregated schools.

The effects of a lack of education are widely economic and health-related. Lower-income children face "physical and cognitive development and disparities regarding access to healthcare and to key resources that help ensure success". Additionally, a lack of education due to poor funding can discourage students from attending post-secondary education. With a lack of access to attending universities, students are statistically likely to earn less in future-earnings. "Two-thirds of those without a high school diploma have an annual income of less than $25,000." With the lowest median individual income by state, being $33,000, it's evident that many of those receiving an inept education will live in poverty. With students, a part of Black communities receiving poorer education than there white counterparts, a system of oppression begins to appear. The education these students rightfully deserve is stripped from them pushing them into a life of poverty and a cycle of oppression.

What this all indicates is that a lack of education contributes to a cycle of poverty and lower socio-economic status that predominately affects minority communities. The clear lack of funding among minority communities brought on by the federal, state, and local governments reveals further how racial oppression is rooted in the institution of education.

So How do We Fix the Education System?

To learn more about the rise in segregated education systems in modern America click the video!
In 2013-2014, there were 15,089 segregated schools
Segregation began to increase again after the 1980s due to the overturning of integration programs because of conservative judges that felt that the government doesn't have the right to force integration.
White flight also lead to the re-establishment of segregated schools due to the majority of the white population leaving to go to suburbs.

The graph to the right shows the percentage of black students in white schools in the south from 1954 to 2011.
Around the late 1980s, several court cases arose that challenged the standings of integration programs in the U.S.
Board of Education of Oklahoma City v. Dowell ruled that federal desegregation orders should be ended. This led to the resegregation of schools all throughout the U.S.

During the early 2000s, court oversight of segregation in schools largely decreased.
As a result, segregation increased once again in school systems as seen in the bottom left graph
15 years after, many states were released from court oversight which led to even more resegregated schools than before.
Segregation in schools now has actually seen higher rates than ever before, and a lot of this is attributed to wealth disparities.
School systems that are characterized as lower-income, have larger amounts of black and Latino students, so much so that they actually tend to comprise the majority of groups in lower-income schools, as seen by the bottom right graph.