Halting Separate and Unequal Public Schools in Massachusetts

Halting Separate and Unequal Public Schools in Massachusetts

Worcester Panel on Fully Funded Schools, November 13, Tues. 6 PM,

Clark U. Jefferson 218

     The Supreme Court of the United States in the landmark case of Brown versus the Board of Education ruled that separate and “equal” schools could never be equal because of their separateness. The standard being “unequal” education is unconstitutional.

     Today in Massachusetts there is a systemic growth of a separate and unequal education. The cause of this systemic development of inequality is the changing demographics of some Massachusetts cities and town. This change in demographic is taking place without a comparable change in the manner schools are funded.

  

   Many Massachusetts cities are going from mostly White student populations to mostly so called minorities and immigrant student populations.

These cities, such as Worcester, Holyoke, and New Bedford have become known as Gateway Cities. Gateway is a term used to describe where people tend to first move when coming to Massachusetts.

  

   It has been objectively determined that poorer students, special education students, and recently arrived immigrant students require greater resources than the $6, 500 the State allocated per student under Chapter 70. The greatest disparities are found among special education students whose resource requirement might run as high as $15, 000 per annum.

  

   Gateway Cities are facing a spiraling shortfall of funds and a continual cutback in educational services that will only worsen overtime. This lack of fully funded resources for the students in the Gateway Cities is creating an educational system that will become more separate and more unequal.  

     The Gateway Cities are working on a lawsuit to increase the funding required for the additional resources needed by the poor, by recent immigrants, and by special needs students. Unfortunately, it looks like that lawsuit will take several years, if at all, to be effective. 

    There is building among the so called grass roots of the Gateway Cities a movement for Fully Funded Schools and Common Sense Spending. There has been a discussion event in Holyoke and parent driven resolution at the New Bedford School Committee. Worcester is having a panel discussion and advocacy event on November 13, 2018, 6 PM, Clark U. Jefferson 218.

     A partial list of co-sponsors: Clark U, Youth and Community Education Dept. (host), Green Rainbow Party, Worcester Education Justice Alliance, Progressive Labor Party, and Massachusetts Human Rights Committee, Education Alliance of Worcester, Worcester Branch NAACP, Massachusetts Action Network, SURJ, and Latino Policy Institute.

      

     Hopefully a statewide movement will develop to halt and reverse the systemic growth of a separate and unequal public school system in Massachusetts.