It's Not Resegregation. It's Much-Needed Progress for Black Students
This year, the nation is acknowledging the 70th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education. This landmark Supreme Court case made history by declaring that “separate but equal” public schools were unconstitutional, and that set the stage for the racial integration of public schools in America. Seven decades later, many lament that racial segregation in schools is worse today than it was back then.
Some scholars even blame charter schools for the hyper-concentration of Black and Latino students. Without charter schools, researchers suggest racial diversity in public schools would be about 13% better. But is it a good thing to eliminate the schools that offer an exceptional education to Black and Latino students…because they serve mostly Black and Brown students? It seems that would defeat the very intent of Brown v Board of Education.
Integrating schools was not necessarily about being together in the same place. It was about two things: not forcing Black students to attend schools that were not serving them well and creating a pathway for Black students to have better educational and life outcomes. I can’t believe that all these years later, people are still stuck on whether Black children are sitting across from white children in math class and they’re drawing sweeping conclusions on the educational experiences of students of color based solely on that.
They are missing the whole point. That was never the desired goal of the Civil Rights movement.
The true goal of desegregation was to improve educational access and outcomes for Black children. Getting those kids into White schools was the best way to get it done in 1954. Why? Because White students had access to schools with heat. They had new textbooks and fancy science labs.
Blacks wanted access to that, too. And it simply was not available to them in their communities. So, if it meant being spat upon, attacked by dogs, and escorted by the National Guard, they were willing to do it in order to get a good education.
But we are no longer in 1954. Seventy years after the milestone decision, the question we should be asking is whether we are making progress on is the real goal of the Civil Rights movement. Are students of color achieving at the level of their white peers?
The data proves there are many places where students of color often achieve at high academic levels, but it’s taking place in schools that don’t meet the definition of “integrated.” It’s happening in charter schools.
A recent study found that “charter schools produce superior student gains despite enrolling a more challenging student population than their adjacent” traditional district schools, and more specifically, “Black and Hispanic students in charter schools advance more than their [traditional district] peers by large margins in both math and reading.”
Most families of color see this evidence as meeting the promise of Brown v. Board of Education, which is why they overwhelmingly support public school choice. These families are not marching outside charter schools asking where the white kids are and claiming this is resegregation. Most of these families are asking why there aren’t more schools like this to meet their needs.
Charter schools, public schools that sit outside the control of the school district, are doing a remarkable job of ensuring Black and Hispanic children have access to a high-quality education. The uncomfortable truth is the number of white students sitting in these classrooms has been rendered moot by these results. This does not mean we are in a period of resegregation. This means parents are being empowered to choose the school that best meets their child’s needs and they now have great options in their own neighborhood.
Families want the freedom to access anything for their child that a white child can access, and sometimes they want something that is not offered at a White school.
At Dream Diné, a public charter school in Shiprock, New Mexico, students are taught a culturally-affirming curriculum steeped in Diné history. Children there learn the Navajo language and philosophy. Parents are making a choice to send their kids there, so it’s not surprising that the majority of the school is Native American. Whites are welcome to attend, of course, and perhaps the integration brigade should be encouraging more whites to apply!
The same holds true at Hmong American Peace Academy, a charter school in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where the student population is nearly 100% Asian, including 83% who come from low-income households. In the eyes of the “integrated or fail” punditry, this school would certainly fall in the latter based on the demographics. The outcomes, however, tell a different story. In 2023, the school had a graduation rate of 93%, well above the city average. Again, the classrooms are far from integrated, but the results speak for themselves.
70 years after Brown v. Board of Education, families of color continue to fight. The difference now is that our former allies are the ones putting up the barriers to our progress. It is progressives who claim that the schools that give Black and Hispanic children the greatest hope for educational excellence are somehow hurting our kids because the classrooms don’t have enough White kids in them.
It makes one wonder whether we ever shared the same Civil Rights goals. If integration for the sake of integration is their end game, then we have wildly different ideals.
