Posted on 06/28/2007 9:46:05 PM PDT by neverdem
LET us now praise the Brown decision. Let us now bury the Brown decision.
With yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling ending the use of voluntary schemes to create racial balance among students, it is time to acknowledge that Brown’s time has passed. It is worthy of a send-off with fanfare for setting off the civil rights movement and inspiring social progress for women, gays and the poor. But the decision in Brown v. Board of Education that focused on outlawing segregated schools as unconstitutional is now out of step with American political and social realities.
Desegregation does not speak to dropout rates that hover near 50 percent for black and Hispanic high school students. It does not equip society to address the so-called achievement gap between black and white students that mocks Brown’s promise of equal educational opportunity.
And the fact is, during the last 20 years, with Brown in full force, America’s public schools have been growing more segregated — even as the nation has become more racially diverse. In 2001, the National Center for Education Statistics reported that the average white student attends a school that is 80 percent white, while 70 percent of black students attend schools where nearly two-thirds of students are black and Hispanic.
By the early ’90s, support in the federal courts for the central work of Brown — racial integration of public schools — began to rapidly expire. In a series of cases in Atlanta, Oklahoma City and Kansas City, Mo., frustrated parents, black and white, appealed to federal judges to stop shifting children from school to school like pieces on a game board. The parents wanted better neighborhood schools and a better education for their children, no matter the racial make-up of the school. In their rulings ending court mandates for school integration...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Because non-whites want it that way.
Today’s ruling was a reaffirmation of the origional intent of Brown vs. Board of Education. That’s why the Left hates it.
I watch Brit Hume’s show on Fox, and enjoy his smackdowns of Juan Williams’ lib looneyness. But on the issue of blacks taking responsibility for their own futures, Williams makes sense.
I heard that UCLA or USC (or one of those colleges in Southern CA) was having separate Hispanic and black graduations, because the Hispanics and blacks wanted it that way. They're the segregationists.
I’ve always noticed that people tend to segregate themselves. Look at any social situation. Like tends to stay with like. Not attaching anything to that other than it’s just an observation. People tend to choose that (segregation) for themselves - and when they do, why should government step in??
I think Brown as much as anything is responsible for the “death” of some American cities. “White flight” has left some cities populated almost entirely by the poor.
You've basically got the choice to:
Improve the school district you're in.
Move to a different, better school district.
Send your kids to a private school.
Busing your kids across town creates more problems than it solves.
You're right, this is one of the few times I've agreed with him.
In Brown it was a matter of a little girl wanting to attend a school near her, rather than far away.
This court affirms that schools can’t judge you on race...nothing is wrong with this opinion.
That’s true. Brown banned forced segregation. This ruling bans forced mixing.
You are correct.
This is actually an excellent, well-reasoned column (up until the final paragraphs where Juan begs for more money for the teachers unions). Academic success has always been 95% parents and 5% schools, and it (hopefully!) always will be. Kids were generally getting pretty well educated with very little in the way of resources throughout the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century (up until about the time of ‘Brown’, ironically).
The decline of most urban government schools over the past few decades is the direct result of feel-good liberalism, which relentlessly “lowered the bar” until the most under-achieving students became the common denominator, and welfare-state socialism which all but destroyed the inner city family unit by replacing the family father with a welfare check. (Thank you, Democrats.)
(Why in God’s name blacks remain overwhelmingly Democrat is a mystery for the ages. There MUST be more to it than stupidity.)
Yes.
I guess Juan doesn’t realize the teacher’s unions always want the status quo. The left calls itself progressive, but when it comes down to it, the left never wants to step out into the vision. Their primary attraction is to the security.
And we call ourselves traditional conservatives, but it is the right that is willing to try new things. Newt has fascinating ideas for education, but the left won’t let their gravy train of control ever be disrupted.
Juan Williams has been pretty courageous on race issues for the last 4-5 years or so. Not as courageous as John McWhorter (or Shelby Steele, Orlando Patterson and a few others), but pretty courageous.
Precisely.
Once again, Thomas Sowell is exactly correct. The left defines fairness by the outcome; the right defines fairness by the process.
Left: Did it turn out fairly? (i.e. did everyone get a ribbon?)
Right: Was it conducted fairly? (i.e. was everyone given an equal opportunity?)
I get the impression that Fox News Channel is rubbing off on him.
Bill Cosby has been standing up for personal responsibility for years and has received far too little credit.
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