Most are familiar with the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education. Many do not know that one of the five consolidated cases decided in Brown and its sequel, Brown II, originated in Prince Edward County, Virginia. Regrettably, the desegregation ordered in Brown, which was to occur “with all deliberate speed” according to Brown II, is in peril.
Understanding that quality public education is in the public interest, the Supreme Court of Virginia has declared that education is a fundamental right under the Virginia Constitution, and the Virginia Constitution provides for “an education program of high quality.” Yet, the distance learning protocols in place during the COVID-19 pandemic are proving to be an insufficient replacement for quality in-classroom learning. The result of these deficient protocols promises to have a delayed but pervasive negative effect on all students — to the particular detriment of students whom the law has sought to protect over time.
Parents are correct to be concerned that distance learning may very well lead to the “resegregation” of schools. The segregation that Brown and Brown II sought to eradicate was geographical. During that era, black students attended schools separate but unequal to schools that white students attended. The more sophisticated segregation resulting from distance learning may not be limited to geography, but its disparate and unequal impact will be no less un-American.
So much of the education process requires personal interaction with students in order to be effective, interaction that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has declared may occur safely even during this pandemic. Hard-working Virginia families often lack resources to supplant the constitutionally mandated and statutorily required “high quality” education to which their students are entitled. And a great deal of these families have proven to be socioeconomically disadvantaged or families of color.
Failure to return all students to the classroom immediately is a recipe for creating a dual-track public education system, where some students, with an environment and resources adequate to ensure that the education process proceeds uninterrupted, can thrive and others cannot. This dual-track system is precisely what Brown and Brown II sought to eradicate.
I recently assumed representation of a family suing a Virginia school board and superintendent for the deficiencies associated with distance learning. Why? Where is the attorney general, whose job is to serve the public interest? While the people of Virginia will always stand up for themselves, the prospect of resegregating our public schools requires an attorney general devoted to protecting the rights of Virginians.
Jack White is a Republican candidate for attorney general in Virginia. He is a former Supreme Court clerk to Justice Samuel Alito and the former chairman of the board of the Fairfax County Public Schools Education Foundation.
