Civil and Human Rights Coalition Commemorates Brown Anniversary, Reiterates Call for School Resource Equity
WASHINGTON – Nancy Zirkin, executive vice president and director of policy at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, will speak today at a press conference hosted by Congressmen Bobby Scott and John Conyers to commemorate the 62nd Anniversary of Brown v. the Board of Education and release a report showing that schools have become increasingly segregated. At the event, Zirkin will underscore why it’s vitally important for the Department of Education to advance resource equity under its rulemaking for the Every Student Succeeds Act. Below are her remarks as prepared:
“Today marks the 62nd anniversary of Brown v. the Board of Education, which recognized that separate education for students of color was not equal education. What followed 11 years later was the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), Congress’ effort to provide additional resources for the education of children in concentrated poverty in order to level the playing field. 51 years later the promise of an equal education has not yet materialized.
I am sorry to say that the new GAO study confirms what we all suspected—schools are more segregated now than in 2000. These schools and districts are educating a larger share of low-income students and students of color, but compared to their more affluent peers, have minimal access to the educational resources needed to support student success
In fact, the study paints a picture of great disparity, with racially and socioeconomically isolated schools receiving less access to rigorous courses, and facing disproportionately higher rates of students held back in 9th grade, and students getting suspended or expelled. This alarming fact shows that we are poorly allocating critical educational resources to districts and schools that need it most. Since education is the foundation for securing meaningful employment, we must ensure that all of our students are college and career-ready when they leave high school.
As a country, we can’t continue to afford to have a large percentage of Black and Latino youth be unemployed. We must focus on fixing resource disparities that have plagued students of color and low-income students for generations. The implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act provides a meaningful opportunity to address these longstanding inequities in segregated schools and districts. In enacting the original ESEA, the principle was simple: federal education dollars are for the sole purpose of providing extra resources for students in poverty.
In implementing the new education law, the measure of success will be how well it serves low-income children. We cannot continue to spend less in school districts to educate children in their higher poverty schools than their lower poverty schools. To, once again, allow low-income children to forgo the funds to which they are entitled would undermine the stated purpose and historic intent of the law.”
Nancy Zirkin is the executive vice president and director of policy at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 200 national organizations to promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States. The Leadership Conference works toward an America as good as its ideals. For more information on The Leadership Conference and its 200-plus member organizations, visit www.civilrights.org.
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