| 来源类型 | Article |
| 规范类型 | 评论 |
| The South’s school choice scars | |
| Gerard Robinson; Elizabeth English Smith | |
| 发表日期 | 2016-03-08 |
| 出版年 | 2016 |
| 语种 | 英语 |
| 摘要 | Two years after the Supreme Court declared “separate but equal” unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education, The Declaration of Constitutional Principles (known as the Southern Manifesto) was released on the floor of the United States Senate. Seeking to thwart school integration in the South, the document’s 101 signers put forward a state’s rights ideology that still plays out in today’s school choice debates, though not in the way you might expect. Following opposition to the 1954 Brown decision, southern lawmakers advocated “freedom of choice” to give parents the ability to opt-out of school integration. The Southern Manifesto intensified state measures that used “choice” to provide tuition grants for white students to attend segregated private schools (known as “segregation academies”), to authorize school boards to assign students to schools based on race, and to punish public schools that accepted black students by withholding state funds. The Southern Manifesto rallied southern states around the belief that Brown encroached “upon the reserved rights of the states and the people.” The goal was for southern states to reject Brown and forestall school integration by all possible means. And indeed they did. To right the many wrongs that ensued, the federal courts stepped in with a series of desegregation orders. Landmark cases including Griffin v. Country School Board of Prince Edward County (1964) and Coffey v. State Educational Finance Commission (1969) allowed the federal government to assert its will over the states and try to ensure that all children received a quality education. Today, 60 years after the signing of the Southern Manifesto, there is still a coalition pushing for “freedom of choice.” But this time they have a sincere interest in the well-being of students trapped in the nation’s lowest-performing schools. Yet, the legacy of the struggle that started 60 years ago makes school choice expansion a trickier proposition in the South, both politically and legally. While the North has also faced some challenges with public school integration, “choice” in northern states is primarily grounded in expanding opportunity for all students, and particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Indeed, the North welcomed the nation’s first voucher program when Wisconsin created the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program in 1990. But because “choice” was first used as a mechanism to allow white parents to escape the forces of integration in the South, school choice has had a dramatically different connotation in many southern states. Within the last month alone, Tennessee legislators debated a bill that would institute a targeted voucher program and Virginia lawmakers heard arguments on an amendment that would expand the charter authorizing process. To the dismay of advocates and families, both measures fell short. Watch the event video | The Southern Manifesto at 60: Tales from the past, lessons for the future At a national level, Congress and the Department of Justice played a critical role in following through on the Brown ruling post-1954. For over 60 years, Washington has maintained a watchful eye on school choice policies in the South so as not to repeat the mistakes of the past. But today, this tendency has created additional barriers for those seeking to expand opportunity for the same families Brown set out to help. A recent example is Louisiana’s statewide Scholarship Program, established to allow mostly black, low-income students attend a private school if assigned to one of the state’s lowest-performing public schools. In 2013, DOJ intervened, claiming that the program interfered with desegregation efforts outlined in Brumfield v. Dodd (1975). DOJ later dropped the case, but the lesson stands. This legacy also surfaces in more subtle ways. Due to a 1980 desegregation law, a black student was recently notified that he will be unable to remain in his charter school once his family moves from St. Louis to a suburban district. In August 2015, a circuit court denied a group of Arkansas parents the right to transfer their children out of their assigned district due to a desegregation order dating back 40 years ago. Laws once intended to provide opportunity for all sometimes now prevent students from receiving a quality education. To be certain, those who supported desegregation efforts and the DOJ’s case against Louisiana’s voucher program had good intentions. And today, those concerned with expanding school choice are equally well-intentioned. But as we approach the 60th anniversary of the Southern Manifesto this week, it’s important that those concerned with fulfilling Brown‘s promise understand that reforming education requires a comprehensive approach – one that takes into account communities and the history surrounding them. At the same time, federal and state policymakers should examine today’s landscape with fresh eyes to create a shared vision for promoting choice in American education. |
| 主题 | Education ; K-12 Schooling |
| 标签 | civil rights act ; K-12 education ; school |
| URL | https://www.aei.org/articles/the-souths-school-choice-scars/ |
| 来源智库 | American Enterprise Institute (United States) |
| 资源类型 | 智库出版物 |
| 条目标识符 | http://119.78.100.153/handle/2XGU8XDN/260216 |
| 推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714 | Gerard Robinson,Elizabeth English Smith. The South’s school choice scars. 2016. |
| 条目包含的文件 | 条目无相关文件。 | |||||
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