Don’t Mourn Brown v. Board of Education

By Juan Williams - June 29th, 2007 - The New York Times

With yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling ending the use of voluntary schemes to create racial balance among students, it is time to acknowledge that Brown’s time has passed. It is worthy of a send-off with fanfare for setting off the civil rights movement and inspiring social progress for women, gays and the poor. But the decision in Brown v. Board of Education that focused on outlawing segregated schools as unconstitutional is now out of step with American political and social realities.

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Racial malice is no longer the primary motive in shaping inferior schools for minority children. Many failing big city schools today are operated by black superintendents and mostly black school boards.

And today the argument that school reform should provide equal opportunity for children, or prepare them to live in a pluralistic society, is spent. The winning argument is that better schools are needed for all children — black, white, brown and every other hue — in order to foster a competitive workforce in a global economy.

There is that other minor issue that representative democracies require literate and experienced citizens or they collapse into greed and dictatorship. A little lesson of history that has been ignored as our schools deteriorated over the last 40 years. It is time to go back to what worked.

Get the courts out of interefering with the discipline of children. They actually ruled that a child that had beaten a teacher almost to death could not be removed from classes.

Also let the teachers teach, not fill out forms proving they are adhering to federal regulations.

Our schools are not failing because we have forgotten how to teach. Our schools are failing because the courts and the federal bureaucrats are "changing society", not "teaching children".

Excellent article.