Executive Summary

Equitable public education is the linchpin of healthy communities, a vibrant economy, and an effective democracy. However, 50 years after Brown v. Board of Education, Southern schools are rapidly resegregating, failing to provide equitable public education while radical economic and demographic shifts threaten the region's well-being.

State of the South 2004: Fifty Years After Brown v. Board of Education calls on the region to ensure integrated, equitable, effective public education to equip our youth for the economic, social, and civic challenges of the next 50 years. Much as we might have hoped, the death of legally sanctioned segregation has not yielded full equity in the education Southern children receive. Whether we become a high-performing, multi-racial society, capable of living together harmoniously, or we degenerate into a region marked by cross-cultural tension will depend on how well our public schools teach today's youth how to live, learn, and work with people who are different.

The report discusses four crucial trends facing the South:

1. The region's continued prosperity requires more people with higher skills and education beyond high school. Structural changes in our economy mandate it. The region now has more white-collar workers than blue-collar, with the trend predicted to continue. Fewer and fewer jobs that pay a family-supporting wage are available to people who do not have high skills and education or training beyond high school.
2. The region's young population is increasingly Latino and African American. These population groups will comprise an increasing percentage of the South's future workforce as well as its communities. Meanwhile, Southern public schools are becoming resegregated, reducing opportunities for all children to learn to live and work together.
3. Many low-income and minority youth attend isolated, resource-poor schools, where they cannot get the education they need. Our schools continue to be afflicted by separateness and inequality, and our students as well as our region continue to suffer from it.
4. Our high schools fail to engage and inspire many students, regardless of income and race. There are two clear pathways out of high school. One leads to further education and career. One leads to disconnection from society and opportunity, and for the most unfortunate - to prison. Between these two pathways is a muddled middle, filled with young people for whom high school fails to provide direction or motivation.

The implications of these trends are clear: structural changes in our economy, increasing racial and ethnic diversity, and a growing gap between the haves and have-nots are putting increased pressures on the region to prepare all young people for lifelong learning, work, and civic participation. Our response to these changes will determine the future health of the region's economy, civic culture, and democracy.

MDC calls on the region's leaders to develop public schools that meet the needs of a fast-changing economy and a multi-ethnic, democratic society. In doing so, they will bolster both the competitiveness and democratic life of our communities. Fifty years after the Brown decision, the South must act to ensure integrated, equitable, effective public education to equip our youth for the economic, social, and civic challenges of the next 50 years.

We urge regional, state, and local leaders to consider five overarching goals. The first three relate in particular to the transformation of high schools. The last two speak to public education more broadly.

Ensure that all young people graduate from high school prepared for further education.

• The South must align high school curriculum and standards with the requirements of the emerging economy and postsecondary education.
• Across the South, states and communities must extend literacy instruction through high school.

Give students multiple pathways through and out of high school more options and equitable options.

• The South needs high school programs that propel students toward skilled occupations that do not require a baccalaureate degree.
• The South should expand and upgrade the ability of high schools to offer accelerated learning options.
• "Blended institutions" are promising models.
• One size does not fit all.
• Career themes can add value.

Build stronger connections between adults and adolescents, between schools and communities.

• Guidance counselors can be powerful connectors.
• The South's schools need strong connections to their communities.

Eliminate high-poverty schools to bring an end to ethnic and social class isolation.

• Local school districts should ensure that no schools have a high concentration of students living in poverty.
• Where entire school districts are so resource-poor that they cannot provide adequate education, it is essential for states to intervene by providing extra resources and/or encouraging regionalization.

Develop a corps of superbly trained, well-paid, professional teachers.

• Faced with demographic destiny, every state must redouble its efforts to identify and train new teachers.
• The South has a compelling need to retain incumbent teachers and to expand their professional development opportunities.
• The South needs to break up the systematic assigning of the most vulnerable teachers to the most vulnerable students.