Integration without more equitable funding will not fix schools [philly.com]

Every February, to honor Black History Month, students around the country are taught about America’s glorious victory in Brown v. Board of Education, the seminal moment that undid Plessy v. Ferguson’s separate but equal racial segregation.

Desegregation is touted as a gold standard of equality and progress. But ending segregation is different from creating integration, let alone justice and equity, especially considering that as of 2011, according to PBS, the percentage of black students in majority white southern schools was “just below where it stood in 1968.”

This lack of progress since Brown has led to calls for integration measures, notably in New York City, where Mayor Bill de Blasio proposed a measure that would expand the admissions process for the city’s specialized public high schools, in order to claim more spots for black and Hispanic students at institutions dominated by Asian and white children.