school segregation
Proponents of massive school privatization scheme owe us answers
If legislative leadership has their way, our public schools will be radically transformed by the 2023 legislative session. Bills targeting Black students and trans students threaten to make our schools increasingly hostile for many children. They are seeking to radically overhaul school funding in ways that harm rural students, students with disabilities, Black students, and […]
Congress expands Brown v. Board of Education historic site beyond Kansas
The U.S. House cleared a bill Tuesday that would expand the Kansas site honoring the U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning school segregation, adding National Park Service sites in other states to commemorate their roles in the decision as well. The bill would designate sites related to school desegregation cases in Virginia, Delaware, South Carolina and […]
Duke study highlights the need for in-school reforms to truly integrate schools
An innovative new study from researchers at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy examines the racial segregation that takes place within North Carolina schools, highlighting the need for more deliberate school-level policies to truly integrate schools. While many studies have examined segregation across districts and schools, this study provides a rare, in-depth look at […]
Report: Federal grants to NC charter schools found to promote racial and economic segregation
A June report from the Network for Public Education, a nonprofit advocacy group focused on strengthening public schools, uncovers how North Carolina is using the federal Charter Schools Program (CSP) to finance schools that have historically served as schools of white flight. North Carolina’s charters contribute to the racial and economic segregation of our public […]
First-of-its-kind bill would incentivize integration of North Carolina schools
This week, Rep. Cecil Brockman introduced a first-of-its-kind bill to add measures of school segregation to North Carolina’s School Report Cards. If passed, H948 would provide policymakers, families, and students with new data to identify racially segregated schools and those in which opportunities and resources are being denied to certain student groups. The bill is […]
The nation’s public schools remain segregated more than 60 years after Brown v. Board of Education
It’s been more than six decades since the Supreme Court declared “separate but unequal” schools unconstitutional. But despite the 1954 landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, the nation’s schools remain heavily segregated by race and ethnicity, according to an instructive brief published by Economic Policy Institute (EPI) to highlight education issues for Blach History Month. Read EPI’s brief here. EPI used data from the National […]
On its 65th anniversary, Brown v. Board of Education and school desegregation are in jeopardy
Tomorrow is the 65th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education — the decision that ordered the desegregation of American public schools. Most of us are familiar with the foot-dragging and obstructionism with which that ruling was met for many years, but fewer are aware of the hard […]
Civil rights advocates: This is the face of school re-segregation
In case you missed it earlier this week, there was a powerful op-ed in Raleigh’s News & Observer that explained in painful detail how charter schools are abetting and expediting the re-segregation of our public schools. As civil rights advocates Mark Dorosin and Elizabeth Haddix of the Julius L. Chambers Center for Civil Rights explained, […]
Experts: Why we should reject efforts to break up NC school districts
In case you missed it the other day online or today in the hard copy of Raleigh’s News & Observer, be sure to check out an outstanding essay by Duke University professor of law Jane Wettach and her student, Grace Thomas. In “Big is best for school districts,” Wettach and Thomas lay out several compelling […]
Hidden policies in General Assembly “technical corrections” bill should be rejected
Legislative leaders have used December’s lame duck session as a last-gasp effort to pass a number of regressive policy measures that will move the state backwards. General Assembly leaders are in a rush to pass these bills before they lose their veto-proof majorities on January 1. Bills related to implementing the new voter ID requirement […]
After backlash, North Carolina lawmakers give a reprieve to school targeted for takeover
After a swift backlash, North Carolina legislators approved a handful of changes to state law Thursday that would offer a reprieve to one struggling Wayne County elementary targeted for takeover by the Innovative School District. The changes emerged from a conference report on a technical corrections bill approved Thursday by House and Senate lawmakers. The […]
With HB 514, legislature unambiguously embraces school segregation
There’s a word for what happens when majority-white suburbs pull their children from a majority-minority school district and place them into exclusionary, majority-white schools: segregation. With the advancement of HB 514, lawmakers are unambiguously embracing school segregation as state policy. HB 514 allows four Charlotte suburbs – Cornelius, Huntersville, Matthews, and Mint Hill – the […]