The goal of desegregation established by Chief Justice Warren in 1954 was not just to affect equality in education, but to provide equal opportunity for life-long achievement. Research on the effects of desegregation on academic achievement (conducted in the 1970s) documented small gains in the reading achievements of black and either positive or neutral effects in math. Researchers also noted that desegregation did not hinder achievement in white students. More recent national studies show that desegregation in schools leads to desegregation in later life. (1) However, in a study conducted in 1993, Harvard University researcher Gary Orfield sites "the beginning of a historic reversal" in school desegregation trends. (2) After dropping for many years, the proportion of black students in minority schools began rising in the late 1980s. The change, due in part to court decisions freeing school districts from mandatory desegregation, marks the first time since the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision that resegregation of African-American students has occurred. Meanwhile, the trend toward greater racial isolation of Latino students has steadily increased. (3) These trends are -- for the most part -- due to growing economic disparity and are often blamed on demographic changes in birth rates and patterns of migration and housing, including federal policies on the location of public housing projects. (4) Mandatory reassignment through the busing of suburban students and urban students has been the solution to this problem in the past. However, conflicts over busing have lead to "white flight" and increased enrollment in private schools among the more privileged students. A 1994 survey showed that whereas almost 88% of Americans approve of the Brown vs. the Board of Education decision, 89% of the whites and 64% of blacks polled believe that it is better for minority students to attend local schools even if the most of the students attending that school are of the same race rather than transferring them to a racially balanced schools outside their community. (5) In one of the most recent -- and highly publicized -- cases against contemporary segregation, Milo Sheff and sixteen other African American, Latino and white public schoolchildren from Hartford, CT filed suit in state court against the Governor, the State Board of Education and education officials. The case cited the gross disparity between the educational opportunities provided in city public school and those provided by Hartford's more affluent metropolitan area schools. The Sheff plaintiffs charge that state officials must address the economic and racial isolation in the schools and must ensure that additional resources are provided to ensure that Hartford students are provided with equal educational opportunities. (6) In 1996, Connecticut's Supreme Court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, finding that school segregation violates the state's constitution no matter the cause of the segregation. (7) In 1997, the Governor's Education Improvement Panel recommended that Connecticut should require school districts to accept students from anywhere in the state, and should pay more for school construction projects that bring black and Hispanic students into mostly white districts, in effect, linking state assistance to the project's effect on racial balance. (8) The struggle for equal education opportunities continues. As of 1995, the U.S. Justice Department reported that it was involved in 513 integration cases with pending court orders. And Civil Rights experts say that there are probably as many cases existing where the federal government is not involved. (9)

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Footnotes: 1. Eaton, Susan. "The New Segregation: Forty Years after Brown, Cities and Suburbs Face a Rising Tide of Racial Isolation," Harvard Education Letter, Vol. X, No. 1, Jan./Feb. 1994 2. Miller, Lamar P. "A Brown-Out Since 1954?" Education Digest, April, 1996. 3. Gary Orfield et al., "The Growth of Segregation in American Schools: Changing Patterns of Separation and Poverty Since 1968." National School Boards Association, December 1993, based on data from US Department of Education Office of Civil Rights. 4. Eaton, Susan. "The New Segregation: Forty Years after Brown, Cities and Suburbs Face a Rising Tide of Racial Isolation," Harvard Education Letter, Vol. X, No. 1, Jan./Feb. 1994 5. USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll, conducted April 22-24, 1994. 6. The American Civil Liberties Union, "Connecticut Supreme Court Rules That Racial and Ethnic Segregation In Hartford Area Schools Violates State Constitution," World Wide Web, Press Release, July 9, 1996. 7. White, Jack E. "Knee Jerk Conservatism," Time, July 22, 1996. 8. Rabinovitz, Jonathan. "School Choice Is Proposed As Counter to Segregation," The New York Times, Jan. 23, 1997. 9. Jost, Kenneth. "Rethinking School Integration," Congressional Quarterly, October 18, 1996.