June 11, 2003

The Problem We All Live With 

Reg Weaver
President, NEA

History has a way of sneaking up on us. It is hard to believe that the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision-the landmark ruling mandating racial equality and equal opportunity in education-will take place less than a year from now on May 17, 2004.

It has been half a century since Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren shattered the status quo with his words: "In these days, it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education. Such an opportunity must be made available to all on equal terms."

But today children in our country are still exposed to vastly different and unequal educational opportunities simply by accident of birth and place of residence. The harsh realities of separate and unequal education persist.

In fact, as a result of segregated schools and substandard facilities, overcrowded classrooms and uncertified teachers, outdated books and underfunded budgets, millions of children are being denied a quality education. Millions of children are being left behind, especially in big-city classrooms and rural schoolhouses all across America.

For many Americans, the defining image of the historic Brown v. Board decision is that of a small, Black girl walking to school behind four federal marshals through a gauntlet of racist adults screaming hateful words at her.

In 1964, Norman Rockwell immortalized the courageous walk of six-year-old Ruby Bridges in his painting, "The Problem We All Live With." Rockwell knew then what we must acknowledge now-that the "problem" of ensuring a quality education for every child is not simply a matter of "Us" versus "Them." It is one that will take all of us to solve.

We should celebrate Brown v. Board on its golden anniversary for the same reason we celebrate the Declaration of Independence, the Emancipation Proclamation, and other great documents in American history. They are triumphs of the human spirit.

But our celebration will be a hollow one if we do not insist that our elected officials put an immediate end to the inadequate and unequal funding of public schools that serve poor children.  The richest nation in the world can afford to provide every child with a quality public education.

And if our elected officials refuse to honor the fundamental right of all children to a quality public education-one that is adequately and equitably funded-then we will have to do what our brothers and sisters did in the 1950s and 1960s. We will have to sound a call to action. As Martin Luther King,  Jr. wrote from the Birmingham jail, there comes a time when we must  "create such a crisis" that justice will be done.

If Americans of all races follow in the footsteps of a six-year-old child and act as courageously as she did, we will make history, again. We will bury for good "the problem we all live with," right alongside slavery and Jim Crow.

Reg Weaver

President, National Education Association

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