The Fight for Racial Justice May Be Closer to Home

George Floyd’s killing has renewed the demand for racial justice and equity in America with many white people joining in this effort participating in marches and protests in solidarity with African Americans and other people of color. This can be seen in many towns and cities across the U.S.. At the same time, there are renewed calls for a “national conversation on race,” with many white Americans asking how they can contribute to creating a more racially just society. One place to start may be in the schools of their towns and cities. America’s schools and classrooms are highly segregated racially, ethnically and economically, with negative impacts on children of color as well a low-income white students. Over half of America’s school children attend schools where three quarters of students are white or nonwhite. School districts that serve mainly students of color receive $23 billion less funding than those serving mainly white students (Mervosh). This resource gap has led to an academic achievement gap with white students outperforming Black and Latinx students affecting their educational goals, career prospects, and future earnings (Reardon).

However, since schools are locally controlled, parents and school administrators have great say in how they are run and have the power to transform them into places of racial and ethnic diversity and opportunity. The question is, are those white parents and school administrators who support the broader aims of the Black Lives Matter movement willing to fight for racial justice in their schools? Is this kind of support for racial equality too close to home, raising questions about privilege, social class, racial stereotypes and comfort levels? These are the kinds of questions parents and school administrators are wrestling with today in the suburban towns of Maplewood and South Orange in New Jersey. As two of the most progressive and diverse communities in the state, whose residents came out in support of Black Lives Matter, they may offer some insight into how much change this moment of racial reckoning will bring about in the U.S..

Until now, these towns, which share the same school district, have failed to provide students of color with the same educational opportunities as white students. In 2018, a study by Propublica found significant differences in the academic performance of Black and white students. Black students were academically three grades behind white students and five times more likely to be suspended. At Columbia, the local high school, white students were 64% of those in Advanced Placement classes while Black students were only 22%. White students made up 83% of those in gifted and talented courses in comparison to 7% of Black students At the same time, while the school district has made attempts to integrate its schools since the 1960’s, they remain highly segregated at the K-5 level with five of them majority white and one mainly black (de Freytas-Tamura).

Since 2014, Black Parents Workshop (BPW), a group of parents with children in the school district, has worked to correct these and other inequities. In 2014, with the support of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, the group reached an agreement with the school district to address these disparities. However, little was done to improve this situation resulting in another lawsuit by the group in 2018 to force the Board of Education to act. Finally, in July this year, the school district settled the lawsuit agreeing to make changes that will now be monitored by a retired New Jersey Supreme Court Justice (Everett).

While this new agreement offers greater promise for change, it also raises questions about why it has taken so long and been such a struggle? Why was a lawsuit necessary to make the school district implement changes it agreed to several years ago? Why has the school district failed to deliver on its previous agreements to bring about these changes? What role have white parents played in supporting or resisting the aims of BPW? According to one report, there are fears of busing, losing the convenience of having one’s child in a neighborhood school, or having a child placed in less demanding classes. It may be that white parents see integration as a zero-sum game in which providing opportunities for kids of color will reduce the competitive advantages their kids have. This was the view of Thelma Ramsey, an education consultant, hired in 2014 to create a plan for greater racial equity in the school district. “In America, in order to have real equality, the other side thinks they have to give up something: ‘If I give you two pennies I’m going to lose one penny.’ And that’s not it.” Ms. Ramsey left without creating a plan because she felt school officials and parents did not support her efforts (de Freytas-Tamura).

The fears and concerns of the parents in Maplewood and South Orange are reflected in the segregated schools across New Jersey and America. The result is a system of racial inequality in local schools that denies millions of students of color the same opportunities for educational success as their white peers. Overcoming these fears and concerns would lead to a transformative change improving the lives and outcomes of these students. Those white parents who genuinely believe that Black lives matter need to ask themselves if they really mean it if they continue to allow their schools to be places of “separate and unequal” education.

Sources

Black Parents Workshop https://blackparentsworkshop.org/

Everett, Rebecca. (2020, July 17). N.J. District Accused of Segregation Settles Lawsuit, Will Integrate Under Eye of Federal Monitor. NJ.com https://www.nj.com/

de Freytas-Tamura, K. (2019, August 30, Updated September 4). A Suburb Believed in Liberal Ideals. Then Came a New Busing Plan. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/

Mervosh, Sarah. (2019, Feb. 27). How Much Wealthier Are White School Districts Than Nonwhite Ones? $23 Billion, Report Says. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/

Propublica. (2020, July 29) Miseducation New Jersey: South Orange-Maplewood School District Retrieved from Propublica (2020, August 19). https://projects.propublica.org/miseducation/state/NJ

Reardon, S.F., Weathers, E.S., Fahle, E.M., Jang, H., & Kalogrides, D. (2019). Is Separate Still Unequal? New Evidence on School Segregation and Racial Academic Achievement Gaps (CEPA Working Paper No.19-06). Retrieved from Stanford Center for Education Policy Analysis: http://cepa.stanford.edu/wp19-06 (2020, August 19).