Time to End Segregation in Erie County Schools

“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 … is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms.”

— Majority opinion, Brown vs. Board of Education

To give children an inferior education purely based on their skin color is clearly unacceptable. Yet, somehow, giving children an inferior education based on their parents’ income is perfectly fine. It is time Erie County takes serious action to make education available to all students “on equal terms.” Only 35 percent of Erie city students scored proficient in reading. Even fewer, 24 percent, scored proficient in math.

This is everybody’s fault. For years, we all allowed students in the city of Erie to receive an inferior education to their peers in districts such as Millcreek and Fairview. This inequality in education cannot be allowed to continue. The best solution is to end economic segregation in Erie County’s school districts. That would mean redrawing school district lines so that an equal number of impoverished students are in each district.

This approach is endorsed by a University of Georgetown study which found “since infusions of cash into poor districts have often failed to equalize student achievement between poor and rich districts, eliminating the school district segregation between rich and poor is the only viable option” for delivering all students a high-quality education.

— Siegrid Tuttle, Fairview