Fifty years ago, whites and blacks were segregated into schools the Supreme Court determined to be illegally separate but not equal. In Ohio today, minority students' schools are often separate and rarely equal. Now, however, the inequities are legal.
Officials cite public school funding as a major problem for minority children. Urban areas typically with high minority populations tend to be less wealthy and produce less in property taxes that fund schools. Suburbs, typically with a high white population are often wealthier and pay more in property tax to fund schools.
Education is today's civil rights issue
Sen. C.J. Prentiss, D-Cleveland, said. Barriers in education still exist. Brown v. Board of Education was the beginning of civil rights laws and legislation that helped tear down the walls of segregation. But today state budget concerns have led to deeper cuts in education putting the future of African-American students in peril.
The disparity in funding leads to a disparity in resources. Poorer schools have out-of-date textbooks, and some schools still do not have computers, or the computers they do have are out-of-date.
Also, there has been a recent trend in primary and secondary education to move away from public schools to private, parochial or charter schools. Because many minority families cannot afford these schools, they get left behind, Sen. Tom Roberts, D-Trotwood, said.
I think part of it is that there's a real belief that public education isn't doing its job so we have to look at alternative forms of education
he said. It leads to a more modern form of separate but equal in education today.
While funding is the primary problem, parental involvement, a major factor in primary and secondary education, tends to be lower in families living in urban areas, Roberts said.
Even though there are still problems in public education today, minorities would be in a far worse position without Brown, Rep. Tyrone Yates, D-Cincinnati, said.
I don't even want to think about that one
Yates said. We would be in very bad shape in terms of social and cultural relations.
Officials say Brown allowed for urban students to receive an education they would not have otherwise received, and without it, Ohio's black leaders such as Ohio Lt. Gov. Jeanette Bradley, Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, Prentiss, Yates, Roberts and other minority members of the General Assembly would not have been able to obtain high government positions.
I think education for many urban students would not have been the same had we not have had the Brown v. Board decision
Roberts said.
Prentiss said the Brown decision should be used as inspiration for furthering educational equality.
While race defined the boundaries of segregation then
today we face segregation and educational inequalities that are rooted in economic differences in addition to racial issues
she said. We must continue to fight for the promise of equal access to a high quality education that Brown held for all children regardless of race
income or geography.
