Separate & Unequal Schools

A new report from the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future (NCTAF), "Fifty Years After Brown v. Board of Education: A Two-Tiered Education System," surveys teachers’ views of unequal teaching and learning opportunities that are still common in many of America’s public schools. The findings paint a chilling picture of inequitable school conditions where low income students and children of color are too often taught by unqualified teachers, with insufficient instructional materials and a limited supply of textbooks and inadequate technology, in crumbling buildings -- with vermin and broken bathrooms. The data show that these substandard teaching and learning conditions are rarely found in public schools where the majority of students come from more affluent backgrounds and have a low risk of school failure. NCTAF’s report concludes that we have a two-tiered education system -- one for the more affluent, who enjoy the privileges of a relatively healthy educational environment, and the other for the least privileged, who suffer an educational environment that, in many cases, virtually forecloses their chance of learning. The report points out that the nation’s goal is to leave no child behind, but the schools that are available for some children say otherwise. http://www.nctaf.org/article/?c=4&sc=17&ssc=0&a=244

(Public Education Network Weekly NewsBlast, May 14, 2004)