1954's Brown v Board of Education, one of the paramount Supreme Court Rulings of the inchoate Civil Rights movement, mandated the desegregation of schools across the United States along racial lines. Implicit in that was equal investment and opportunities for all students in the newly-integrated schools.
But 70 years later, a national study conducted by the Southern Education Fund finds that in many districts, including in Mississippi, segregation in schools is actually worsening.
Among the issues listed in the report, titled Miles to Go, include funding disparities, historic patterns of segregation and punitive school discipline that targets Black students at much higher rates than their counterparts.
The organization’s President and CEO, Raymond Pierce, says much of the information contained in the report is hardly new phenomena.
“Many of the symptoms and the disparities in this report are disparities and concerns that have been expressed over the decades with regard to the education available for African-American students in this case, particularly in the state of Mississippi. So a lot of this is not new,” Pierce said.
“There have been some improvements over the decades. There have been times when this nation, Mississippi included, have been on the climb up in terms of addressing these disparities, and there have been times where the nation has been very serious, particularly during the era of desegregation, where there has been closing of the gap and some reduction of these disparities. But we find that, as this report points out, we've kind of slid back.”
According to the report, which analyzes a broad dataset of Black students across early childhood, K-12 and postsecondary education, these disparities rear their head most often in academic metrics such as graduation rates and test scores.
But the Foundation and Pierce say many of these metrics are actually symptoms of opportunity gaps, largely due to inequitable funding.
According to the national analysis, school districts with high rates of either Black students or students of color receive, on average, 13% less in funding than those who serve primarily White students.
Pierce says targeted funding programs, such as Title I, are a policy that could help address those disparities.
“Before we start talking about funding formulas as part of this, we have to talk about what it is we’re funding. Is it more teachers or teacher aids? Is it more education technology tools? Smaller class sizes? Is it more personalized funding?”, Pierce asked.
“It’s not just throwing money at the problem until it's fixed, or not. It’s addressing the formulas we currently use and identifying those school districts that are lagging behind, and targeting those schools with specific funding that can actually address those disparities.”
As of May, 2024, roughly 30 school districts in Mississippi were under active federal desegregation orders, according to the U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.