ICYMI: Ranking Member Scott Hosts Briefing with Experts on the Importance of Brown v. Board and the Fight for Educational Equity
WASHINGTON – Ranking Member Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (VA-03) hosted a briefing with experts on the significance of the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education and the fight for educational access and opportunity for all.
Watch the full briefing on YouTube.
Members and staff heard from Kim Atkins Stohr, Boston Globe, Saba Bireda, Brown’s Promise, Janel George, Racial Equity in Education Law & Policy Clinic, Georgetown Law, David Hinojosa, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and Hamida Labi, Policy Counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.
In the Supreme Court’s landmark 1954 decision, Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote: “In the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.” While the decision was lauded as a victory to right constitutional wrongs, the fact is that the massive resistance movement that followed and other factors slowed the efforts to eradicate decades of legal segregation.
Seven decades after Brown, we have yet to fulfill the promise of equity in education. According to a 2022 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, high poverty schools where more than 75 percent of students were from low-income and from Black or Latino families increased from 9 percent in 2000-2001 to 16 percent in 2013-2014. The report also found that these schools had fewer resources and disproportionately high rates of school discipline.
The briefing follows a request from Ranking Member Scott for Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (NC-05) to hold a hearing on the state of school segregation. However, Committee Republicans have yet to schedule any hearings this Congress to address this issue and would not accommodate a request to use the Committee’s space for the briefing.
###
Press Contact
Democratic Press Office, 202-226-0853
Next Article Previous Article