The Return to Separate but Equal 60 Years Post Brown
Written by Denisha Jones
As we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court ruling Brown vs. Board of Education, which put an end to segregation of public schools, many have argued that the goals of that case have not been met as many black and brown students remain in schools that are highly segregated from their white counterparts. Before the Brown case, segregation in public places was justified through the ruling in 1896 Plessy vs. Ferguson that gave birth to the separate but equal policy. The Supreme Court in Brown acknowledged that separate but equal was inherently unequal. Segregated schools received less money, resources, and many communities in the South refused to create schools for blacks, leaving many without the opportunity to receive an education. Integration removed the barrier that kept white and black children from attending the same school, but did it put an end to separate but equal? Or has the growth of charter schools led to a new version of separate but equal?
As charter schools grow in many communities, some states have passed laws demanding that new charter schools be co-located in existing public schools. As the student population in traditional public schools decline leaving some buildings with empty rooms, charter schools have been determined to have a right to those spaces. Proponents of charter schools insist that as a public school, charter schools should have access to public school buildings, even if a school already operates in the building. But what does co-location mean to the traditional public school students who now have to share and or lose their space with the students from the charter school? For many it means a return to separate but equal policies.
In California districts that mandate co-locations, many parents, students, and teachers find themselves in a battle with each other. A Huffington Post article on the effects of co-location reports many teachers in the original public school lose their rooms and access to certain parts of the building when they are The Return to Separate but Equal 60 Years Post Brown - emPower magazine: