Contact: Will Potter   (202) 822-7823

July 1, 2007

Supreme Court Decision Could Prompt Backslide Into Unequal Education

NEA says ruling threatens the basic right of all children to receive a quality public education

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The National Education Association expressed deep disappointment in the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to strike down voluntary public school integration plans in Louisville, Ky., and Seattle, Wash. The National Education Association and more than 40 of its state affiliates joined a host of other organizations, including the AFL-CIO, NAACP, People for the American Way and the American Federation of Teachers, in signing a friend-of-the-court brief in support of both schools districts’ voluntary desegregation plans. 

“More than 50 years ago,” said Reg Weaver, president of NEA, “our nation’s highest court ruled that the United States Constitution requires schools to be integrated, but now the Court has ruled that our Constitution prohibits voluntary efforts to integrate schools. NEA believes strongly that the Court ruling striking down these plans could jeopardize some very hard fought gains that we’ve made over the years in making quality public education more accessible to all of America’s children.”

NEA urged the court to uphold the value of diversity, which according to a substantial body of research, actually improves the quality of education for all students. NEA in its brief wrote, “Interactions among students of different races – with different vantage points, skills, and values – are of great consequence not only to the students’ development as citizens in a multiracial, democratic society, but also to their intellectual development.” The brief also said, “The impact of encountering and dealing with racial diversity as part of their education is positively linked to growth in cognitive and academic skills of both racial minority and white students. These educational benefits are realized not only while children are in school, but in their subsequent lives as well.”   

“Separation in education can never be equal,” said Weaver. “We still have major gaps in student learning and achievement. Closing these gaps requires adequate and equitable funding, qualified teachers, small class sizes and up-to-date facilities and material. Making sure that all of America’s children have an equal opportunity to succeed in life must also involve parents, lawmakers, and other concerned citizens. These assignment plans struck down by the court won’t solve the achievement gap problem, but they are an essential element of the larger solution.”

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The National Education Association is the nation's largest professional employee organization, representing 3.2 million elementary and secondary teachers, higher education faculty, education support professionals, school administrators, retired educators
and students preparing to become teachers.