Equity issues in public school finance have been discussed in terms of three waves. The first wave was a challenge to the U.S. Supreme Court to provide equal education to all students as a fundamental right. After a ruling against the plaintiffs in "San Antonio v Rodriguez" (1973), the fight shifted to a second wave in the state courts.…

After decades in the political wilderness, school integration seems poised to make a serious comeback as an education reform strategy. A growing number of parents, university officials, and employers want elementary and secondary schools to better prepare students for the increasingly racially and ethnically diverse society and the global economy.…

The question at the heart of this reflection on the Brown v. Board of Education decision is one proposed by the author's former professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, William Watkins. He asked graduate students to keep their attention on "Who's got the biscuits?" And, by extension, to remember to ask, "Who's getting the…

The Supreme Court's landmark Brown decision changed the total pattern of race relations in the United States and helped to solidify the foundations of American democracy for the benefit of all Americans. Ironically, although the specific issue which resulted in the Brown decision was concerned with the constitutionality of racially segregated…

On May 17, 2004, the United States will observe the fiftieth anniversary of the Supreme Court's landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. By invalidating the doctrine of "separate but equal" in the field of public education, a doctrine that had been approved by the same court nearly sixty years earlier in Plessy…

On July 28, 2006, a panel of experts briefed members of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights on the putative benefits of racial and ethnic diversity in elementary and secondary education. Four experts presented written statements to the Commissioners that assessed the social science literature on this issue. They also addressed whether or not…

The problem of the desegregation process in public schools, beginning with the Supreme Court decision Brown v the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, is that it is conceived of as an artificial climate imposed by ratios and busing rather than a learning situation wherein ethnocentricity is developed as a positive attribute. Integration, however,…

This book presents a collection of papers that examine progress since 1954 in achieving racial equality in education and how to most effectively and efficiently achieve the promise of Brown v. Board of Education. The 11 papers are: (1) "Introduction: Assessing the Promise of 'Brown'" (Christine H. Rossell, David J. Armor, and Herbert J.…

This anthology attempts to put the great school bus controversy of the 1970's in perspective by providing a forum in which a series of widely differing views, backed by hard data, can be compared. The first section, "Background and Legal History," places the controversy in a perspective that predates the 1970's. One article focuses on…