Topic > Equal Protection and Education - 763

Equal Protection and EducationClassifications to assign students to specific schools for racial balanceIn the history of the United States, there has always been the problem of race and how to balance racial differences in America . The issue of race has impacted every part of this country, including the field of education. The issue of desegregation and how to balance schools to ensure all students comply with the Fourteenth Amendment and rulings like Brown v. Board of Education was indeed a challenge to American society. How Students Are Classified In the 1954 Court Decision In Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court ruled that school segregation was unconstitutional and violated the Fourteenth Amendment (Justia, n.d.). During the discussion, it was discovered that the separate but equal 1896 ruling from Plessy v. Ferguson made black students feel inferior because the white schools were the superior of the two. Furthermore, the ruling states that Black students have lost opportunities that could be provided under a desegregation system (Justia, n.d.). Thus began the process of classifying and balancing schools by race. Despite the Supreme Court ruling requiring states to desegregate their schools, there has been some resistance to the ruling. This prompted the Supreme Court to issue another ruling in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (2) (n.d.). The ruling, in this case, ordered states to immediately comply with the Brown I ruling. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 states that any program receiving federal funding and assistance may not discriminate on the basis of race, national origin or to the skin. color. All students are allowed... middle of paper....... The issue of racial balancing has even come to court for charter schools. Concern that charter schools could become segregated schools prompted the ruling of the Beaufort County Board of Education v. Lighthouse Charter School Committee in 2003. The ruling stated that all charter schools in South Carolina will be in line with the local school districts of their location. Many other states have also adopted a similar ruling on charter schools. (Gajendragadkar, 2006). In conclusion, the balance of schools is an issue still under discussion. There are now cases where blacks and Hispanics outnumber whites in school districts like Detroit. Pasadena also had a similar problem and decided to move white children to urban areas until white families began moving out of the borough as a countermeasure (Green, 2007). Clearly, this problem is still looking for a solution.