Do you agree with this article about the unequal treatment towards black students?

White House: Unequal treatment of black students by schools cannot go on and deserves the “fierce urgency of now.”

1:45 am October 9, 2010, by Maureen Downey

Many reports have found that children of color are treated more harshly by the courts. Now, the Obama White House is looking at whether they are treated more harshly by the schools.

Disparities in how students are disciplined is a serious issue that often gets lost in a toxic cloud of racist rhetoric. The studies show that even when black and white kids break the same rules, the black kids are treated more severely. Any fair-minded person knows that is unacceptable and that we all ought to be demanding an end to such racially driven responses.

(By the way, I have seen enough pseudo science on biology and race on this blog in the last few weeks.  I think it is time to give it a rest. I will remove any comments about IQ and biology. )

Here is an excerpt from a powerful speech given by Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Thomas E. Perez at the recent Civil Rights and School Discipline: Addressing Disparities to Ensure Equal Educational Opportunities Conference.

The foundations of the American Dream are rooted in education. In a nation where we prize hard work and where we tout the ability of any person to climb the economic ladder, we consider education to be perhaps the single most important factor in determining future success.

This simple fact played prominently in what has become the most well-known Supreme Court decision in our nation’s history, and the one that has had the most profound effect on education for our nation’s children.

In Brown v. Board of Education, Justice Warren wrote that:
“…education is perhaps the most important function of state and local governments… It is required in the performance of our most basic public responsibilities, even service in the armed forces. It is the very foundation of good citizenship… 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, where the state has undertaken to provide it, is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms.”

But today, more than five decades later, in schools across the country, we are seeing more and more students disrupted on their way to a diploma by increasingly harsh discipline practices for increasingly minor infractions. Students are being handed Draconian punishments for things like school uniform violations, schoolyard fights and subjective violations, such as disrespect and insubordination.

Zero-tolerance discipline policies are resulting in more suspensions and expulsions during critical years that we know impact a student’s chances of later success.

Regrettably, students of color are receiving different and harsher disciplinary punishments than whites for the same or similar infractions, and they are disproportionately impacted by zero-tolerance policies – a fact that only serves to exacerbate already deeply entrenched disparities in many communities.

The numbers tell the story. While blacks make up 17 percent of the student population, they are 37 percent of the students penalized by out-of-school suspensions and 43 percent of the students expelled. Black boys account for 9 percent of the nation’s student population, but comprise 24 percent of students suspended out of school and 30 percent of students expelled. A study written by participants in this room and released just two weeks ago by the Southern Poverty Law Center found that black male middle school students are suspended at three times the rate of their white counterparts. For middle school girls, while they are suspended less frequently than males, black girls were more than four times as likely to be suspended as white girls.

Moreover, others of you in this room at the Advancement Project reported that from the 2002-2003 school year to the 2006-2007 year, the number of out-of-school suspensions per black student increased by 8 percent and the number per Latino student increased by 14 percent, while the number of suspensions per white student actually decreased by 2 percent.

Not only are the numbers stark in our school systems, but while black children make up only 16 percent of this country’s juvenile population, they are 45 percent of all juvenile arrests.

On the flip side, black children only make up 4 percent of students enrolled in gifted classes and less than 3 percent enrolled in high school AP math and science.

Education should offer a lifeline to those students for whom a successful future is not predetermined. Particularly for those students in poor and historically disadvantaged communities, education should be the key that opens the door to a better future.

But instead, we see that so many students, already starting the race behind some of their peers, are being waylaid by discipline policies that rob them of their only chance for success.

In the Civil Rights Division, we are working to combat these disparities and in several instances, we are doing that with partners in this room as well as our partners at the Department of Education. Later in this conference you will hear of some of the work that we are doing and that the Department of Education is doing. While we recognize that we have a long way to go to address these problems, let me highlight a couple of our current matters.

You will hear the Educational Opportunities Section discuss Barnwell, South Carolina. There, black students were being suspended in-school an average of six times per year, while white students were being suspended an average of two times. These are not just numbers, however; these are students whose suspensions mean they are not in regular classes obtaining the education so necessary for their future success. We entered into a consent decree with the school district to address disparities in discipline, requiring the school district to enlist an outside consultant to institute discipline and classroom management techniques with the goal of keeping kids in the classroom.

In a school district in Minnesota, we learned of a racial fight involving black and white students. There, the black students were suspended while the white students were allowed to stay home “voluntarily.” While they both missed school, the white students were able to avoid the mark on their permanent record. After our involvement, these disparities for the same incident were eliminated – the black students’ suspensions were revoked.

You also will hear of investigations addressing Zero Tolerance Discipline policies that result in a disproportionate number of black students being arrested.

All of these situations are dire. Any time a person’s civil rights are violated, it is a serious concern that must be addressed. But when the violation affects a child’s education, the repercussions can be devastating and lifelong – today’s children won’t get a second chance to prepare for their futures. Like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., said decades ago, we must act with the “fierce urgency of now.”