Editor's note: Howard Fuller, chairman of the Black Alliance for Educational Options, will speak Thursday at a spotlight National School Choice Week event sponsored by the Florida Alliance for Choices in Education. The focus of the event is the connection between the Brown v. Board of Education decision 60 years ago and today's school choice movement. Here, Dr. Fuller offers a taste of what's to come Thursday:
The historic 1954 Brown v Board of Education decision was important not only for its impact on education. It was also an important element of the larger struggle to end the legal discrimination against Black people within the United States. Today, we have a different problem; children of low-income and working-class Black families are trapped in schools that are not providing them with a quality education.
Integration is not the lever of power that is needed at this point in history.
We should heed the words of Judge Robert Carter, who, as a young attorney had the responsibility to put the social science literature before the Supreme Court in the Brown case. He said, “Integrated education must not be lost as the ultimate solution. That would be a disaster in my judgment. For the present, however, to focus on integration alone is a luxury only the black middle class can afford. They have the means to desert the public schools if dissatisfied, can obtain remediation if necessary, and can get their children into colleges or some income-producing enterprise."
In today’s world, ultimately the place where integration that counts takes place is the market place. If low-income Black students arrive at the market place ill-equipped to compete they will never be integrated in the mainstream of this society. Not only will they not be able to function as economically productive citizens, they will also not be able to be effective participants in the effort to engage in the practice of freedom – the transformation of their world.
These families need the capacity to choose better educational environments for their children. Parent choice is one of the levers of power they need in that search for a better education for their children.
