Off the Books: Educational Racism in New York State

Even though New York State has always historically prided itself as the bastion of American progressivism, it currently holds the records for having the most racially segregated public schools in the nation and is also ranked 49th in education equity spending (particularly for Brown-and-Black communities). Not to mention that New York state has historically spent more on its students than any other state in the nation (PLEASE CITE). According to Governor Cuomo,

inequity in education is probably the civil rights issue of our time. There are two education systems in this state. Not public private. One for the rich and one for the poor and they are both public systems ("Effective NY Joins Education Debate").

Although Cuomo has championed against systemic racism in the NY public education, his policies did nothing to address this issue, and in fact, educational inequities dramatically worsen under his governorship. According to findings from the Alliance for Quality Education (AQE), a policy organization dedicated to combating educational racism in NY State, spending for rich, white schools to poorer, black-and-brown schools has grown from $8,024 to $8,733 within the first two years of Cuomo's governorship, the largest educational discrepancy in New York State history ("Record Setting Inequality," AQE). Since then, this gap has grown to"$10,000 per pupil a 24 percent increase” since Cuomo took office in 2010 (PLEASE CITE, AQE).

In 1993, a coalition of parents and political advocates formed the Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE) who then filed a lawsuit against New York State for its inadequate funds to poorer public schools, specifically in areas primarily populated with people of color. It took 13 years (2006) for the New York State Court of Appeals, NY's highest court, to rule in CFE's favor. In this case, the Court of Appeals found that there is a "long history of State inaction despite its knowledge of the inadequacy of the education finance system," the state must "ensure that every school district has the resources necessary to provide a sound basic education" and that minority children in NY state "have the least experienced teachers, the most uncertified teachers, the lowest-salaried teachers, and the highest rates of teacher turnover." As a result, the state was forced into providing 5.5 billion dollars to its public schools (also known as Formula Aid) in order to provide its students with an equitable education.

Although the CFE vs. NY State lawsuit tried to overhaul its infamous education inequity problem, NY State has reversed course and reduced educational funding two years after the court case, and still owes $4.2 billion (out of $5.5 billion promised in the CFE lawsuit in 2006) to its public schools. Not to mention that 54% of students who lack adequate educational funding are economically disadvantaged and 43% of are Latino or Black

Interestingly enough, New York State currently has the most racially segregated public schools in the nation not because of re-segregating efforts done by the right, but because the North has never had to integrate its schools to begin with. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was carefully crafted by the northern lawmakers to outlaw de-jure segregation (i.e. schools that specifically designated "white only" or "blacks only"), however, it did nothing to address de-facto segregation, a problem primarily existed in the Northern, urban areas. This is because the Civil Rights Act of 1965 defined “desegregation” as “the assignment of students to public schools and within such schools without regard to their race, color, religion, or national origin” and explicitly defined segregation

not by “racial imbalance.”

If you want to learn more about AQE, read this article or visit their website at http://www.aqeny.org/.