Seventy years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that separating children in public schools based on race is unconstitutional. This landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education marked a significant shift toward equality, but we are yet to see its full realization. For a diverse and active citizenry committed to advancing democratic principles, students must learn with and from peers of different races, ethnicities, languages, faiths, and economic statuses.
Despite the civil rights movement's sit-ins, marches, and court rulings, many schools today remain segregated by race and socioeconomic status. This segregation impacts equity in funding and resources. Amid declining white student enrollment in K-12 public schools (45 percent) and falling National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores in reading and math—with score gaps between both white and Black students and white and Latino students—persistent segregated learning environments are concerning.
A 2022 Government Accountability Office report found nearly 38 percent of all K-12 public school students attended a predominantly same-race school in 2020-21. About half of white students attended schools with 75 percent or more white student populations. The report also found that about a third of all Hispanic and nearly a quarter of all Black students attended schools made up predominantly of the same race. As a result, Black students have little exposure to white students, and vice versa.
School boundaries and state zoning practices since Brown have preserved hypersegregated schools in some cases. According to a 2019 report from the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee, 71 percent of U.S. students attend their assigned public school. Zoning informs where a student attends school and consequently affects the quality of their education.
Following Brown's decision, forced busing was implemented by court order in 1971 as an attempt to transport Black students from their communities to more affluent neighborhoods for quality education—although some busing was already taking place in the North prior to Brown. In most cases, these efforts proved unsuccessful.
While we may not have realized the promise of Brown, the good news is that Brown still holds promise—but only if we are committed to realizing it. School integration can be achieved through cross-sector collaboration to address the complexities of housing, transportation, and poverty. Schools and districts must work with housing and workforce agencies and policymakers to identify and implement solutions that seek to make schools and communities more racially and economically diverse.
Achieving school integration will also require investments from federal and local agencies. Frequent and improved data collection and dissemination are also needed to inform federal investments. The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights and the U.S. Department of Justice have a duty to protect the civil rights of students.
At the local level, education diversity task forces should pursue a study to uncover the economic and technical feasibility of integrating local schools and classrooms. States should also identify and change existing policies and practices that contribute to segregated learning environments.
The UCLA Civil Rights Project posits that charter school enrollment patterns demonstrate “high levels of minority segregation,” serving a higher percentage of Black and Latino students than traditional public schools.
We must ensure that integrated environments have equal resources: equity in funding, facilities, transportation, teacher pay, and instructional materials. Most importantly, all students deserve to be taught by credentialed educators who are well-compensated.
Racially integrated schools lead to increased graduation outcomes, higher earning potential, better health outcomes for all students—particularly Black students—with these outcomes continuing beyond K-12. However, many schools continue to be separated by race and socioeconomic status.
The NAACP is still on the front lines of resolving long-standing desegregated cases such as Sheff v. O’Neill which began in 1989. Legal mandates alone are not sufficient to reverse the harm caused by Jim Crow laws and segregation. There must be increased federal, state, and local investments made to improve the outcomes of Black students, educators, institutions, and communities. Our nation must remain steadfast in its pursuit of justice to fulfill the promise of Brown.
