Equity Audit: The Perpetuation Of Racial Segregation In The United States And Its Negative Impact On Education And Crime - A New Jersey Case Study
Rihua Xu
23 September 2013
Education attainment in the United States has a direct causal link with economic success. In 2012, the plurality of unemployed persons is represented by those with less than a high school diploma; higher level of education has an undeniable negative correlation with unemployment. Furthermore, those with little or no educational attainment who are employed find themselves making wages significantly less than those with a higher level. An individual’s level of educational attainment, therefore, has a direct correlation with his monetary earning, and distance away from the poverty threshold. With this in mind, it is not controversial to conclude that policies that promote greater educational attainment in impoverished areas should be a prioritized national focus in combatting poverty in the United States.
This paper will attempt to (1) briefly explain the history (and ongoing) educational reforms in the United States, (2) identify, and (3) resolve why education in certain minority-concentrated areas is severely underperforming despite a massive injection of monetary support into these “failing” schools. Specifically, this paper will aim to prove that there exists a strong correlation between crime, segregation, and educational deficiency, and that ways to improve the educational level of “failing” schools is to introduce measures that reduce crime and promote desegregation.
The plaintiffs in Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954) successfully argued that racial segregation of students violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. While this ended the overt segregation of students by race, many districts today are still de facto segregated. Early battles against education level discrepancies (influenced heavily by racial disparity) focused on attacking the property tax based model by which schools were funded, which resulted in gross differences between per pupil spending from different localities. In the landmark case of San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez, 411 U.S. 1 (1973), the Court held that the use of property taxes to fund public schools does not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the US Constitution, and that equality of funding is not required, because education is not a fundamental right. Despite this loss, San Antonio sparked major reforms for many state constitutions in America that resulted in significant changes to how schools are funded all over the country.
Abbot v. Burke 495 A.2d 376, (N.J.1985) is an example of New Jersey reform, which now guarantees additional funds to the most “needing” school districts, called the Abbot Districts. The result is that impoverished minority concentrated public school districts in New Jersey now receives more funding per pupil than even reasonably affluent districts. One can rationally surmise that the issue-driven plaintiffs in San Antonio would be ecstatic to see such changes in school funding in many states such as New Jersey. However, if the assumption that greater funding per pupil equates to higher educational quality is correct, then why have Abbot Districts continuously fail to produce better results, despite a significant per pupil spending?
Continue reading this article in its entirety below: