In Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in public schools violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment because “separate is inherently unequal.” Does this mean that schools should be legally required to have racially balanced student populations? In other words, should the racial composition of the school be required to match the racial composition of the surrounding area’s population (i.e., if the county is 60% white, 30% Hispanic, and 10% black, should each school in the county be required to approximate those percentages in its student population?)? Why or why not?
In Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in public schools violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment because “separate is inherently unequal.” Does this mean that schools should be legally required to have racially balanced student populations? In other words, should the racial composition of the school be required to match the racial composition of the surrounding area’s population (i.e., if the county is 60% white, 30% Hispanic, and 10% black, should each school in the county be required to approximate those percentages in its student population?)? Why or why not?
