Five Miles Away, A World Apart : One City, Two Schools, and the Story of Educational Opportunity in Modern America

How is it that, half a century after Brown v. Board of Education, educational opportunities remain so unequal for black and white students, not to mention poor and wealthy ones? In his important new book, Five Miles Away, A World Apart, James E. Ryan answers this question by tracing the fortunes of two schools in Richmond, Virginia--one in the city and the other in the suburbs. Ryan shows how court rulings in the 1970s, limiting the scope of desegregation, laid the groundwork for the sharp disparities between urban and suburban public schools that persist to this day. The Supreme Court, in accord with the wishes of the Nixon administration, allowed the suburbs to lock nonresidents out of their school systems. City schools, whose student bodies were becoming increasingly poor and black, simply received more funding, a measure that has proven largely ineffective, while the independence (and superiority) of suburban schools remained sacrosanct. Weaving together court opinions, social science research, and compelling interviews with students, teachers, and principals, Ryan explains why all the major education reforms since the 1970s--including school finance litigation, school choice, and the No Child Left Behind Act--have failed to bridge the gap between urban and suburban schools and have unintentionally entrenched segregation by race and class. As long as that segregation continues, Ryan forcefully argues, so too will educational inequality. Ryan closes by suggesting innovative ways to promote school integration, which would take advantage of unprecedented demographic shifts and an embrace of diversity among young adults. Exhaustively researched and elegantly written by one of the nation's leading education law scholars, Five Miles Away, A World Apart ties together, like no other book, a half-century's worth of education law and politics into a coherent, if disturbing, whole. It will be of interest to anyone who has ever wondered why our schools are so unequal and whether there is anything to be done about it. How is it that, half a century after Brown v. Board of Education, educational opportunities remain so unequal for black and white students, not to mention poor and wealthy ones? In this book the author answers this question by tracing the fortunes of two schools in Richmond, Virginia--one in the city and the other in the suburbs. Ryan shows how court rulings in the 1970s, limiting the scope of desegregation, laid the groundwork for the sharp disparities between urban and suburban public schools that persist to this day. The Supreme Court, in accord with the wishes of the Nixon administration, allowed the suburbs to lock nonresidents out of their school systems. City schools, whose student bodies were becoming increasingly poor and black, simply received more funding, a measure that has proven largely ineffective, while the independence (and superiority) of suburban schools remained sacrosanct. Weaving together court opinions, social science research, and compelling interviews with students, teachers, and principals, Ryan explains why all the major education reforms since the 1970s--including school finance litigation, school choice, and the No Child Left Behind Act--have failed to bridge the gap between urban and suburban schools and have unintentionally entrenched segregation by race and class. As long as that segregation continues, Ryan forcefully argues, so too will educational inequality. Ryan closes by suggesting innovative ways to promote school integration, which would take advantage of unprecedented demographic shifts and an embrace of diversity among young adults Contents......Page 12 Introduction Freeman and Tee-Jay......Page 16 PART I: Past: School Desegregation and Middle America......Page 34 CHAPTER 1 Buying Time......Page 36 CHAPTER 2 Don’t Cross That Line......Page 78 PART II: Present: Save the Cities, Spare the Suburbs......Page 134 CHAPTER 3 Desegregating Dollars......Page 136 CHAPTER 4 Like a Russian Novel: School Finance Litigation in State Courts......Page 160 CHAPTER 5 Limited Choices......Page 196 CHAPTER 6 The Impact of Choice and the Role of Courts......Page 230 CHAPTER 7 Lowering the Bar: The Standards and Testing Movement......Page 254 PART III: Future: Demography Is Opportunity......Page 284 CHAPTER 8 In Search of Ties That Bind......Page 286 EPILOGUE: Freeman and Tee-Jay Revisited......Page 320 Notes......Page 324 Bibliography......Page 362 B......Page 386 C......Page 387 D......Page 388 F......Page 389 H......Page 390 J......Page 391 M......Page 392 O......Page 393 R......Page 394 S......Page 395 U......Page 397 V......Page 398 Z......Page 399