Missouri and Kansas schools are broken. Black students aren’t the reason why | Opinion

I do not know how to explain 160 years of history in fewer than 1,000 words, while also explaining my life story and how I helped my young, gifted and Black kids navigate school in modern America. Let’s just say that it has been an odyssey, and I learned a few things along the way that could help a parent or another person like me.

As a kid, I loved school. I remember the excitement of class, eagerly raising my hand to answer a question, and the rush of joy when I got it right. I still remember the flush of pride that came with earning a good grade. As parents, we rely on public schools to teach our children core competencies such as reading, writing and math. But the truth is public schools in Missouri and Kansas struggle to teach those essential skills. As a historian, I realize that education and citizenship are inherently interconnected, and understand how public schools play a vital role in shaping today’s democracy.

Public schools offer a service to the community that goes beyond academic preparation. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, approximately 90% of U.S. children attend public schools. Here’s the issue: Public schools in Missouri and Kansas are broken and failing students on multiple fronts. The school districts do not have the resources to provide personalized support for students who fall behind, and do not have the capacity to prioritize social and emotional learning. If you haven’t already, read the State Report Card published by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Here is what you will find: For the 2022-23 school term, 28.9% of third grade students in Missouri schools tested below basic skill level in English language arts, while 28.8% tested at basic skill level and 25.2% were proficient . Reaching proficiency is crucial for all students to be ready to advance to the next grade level. If more than half of the students in Missouri aren’t meeting grade-level expectations, what are there implications for citizenship and democracy?

Our elected officials know that public schools are failing. Governors on both sides of the state line have signed legislation allocating hundreds of millions of dollars supposedly to fix public schools. Would they spend that amount of money on a functioning system? If you think the price tag is hefty, I regret to inform you that it is not enough.

We cannot begin to repair public schools until we acknowledge why they are broken. School integration following the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education ruling in 1954 did not break the education system in the U.S., as some people will have your believe. Public schools in the U.S. are systemically broken, but Black kids did not break them.

In Missouri, our public education system was broken from the start. When Missouri legislators repealed laws that prohibited the education of Black people, they replaced them with “separate but equal” precedents that predated 1896’s Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court decision. Believe me when I say that public education in Missouri and Kansas is steeped in anti-Black racism, both by design and function.

The Missouri education department’s State Report Card highlights that while white students achieved a 49.2% proficiency in the English language, Black students reached only 21.2% in the 2022-23 school year. This inequity is both the result and a form of systemic racism. If we know that racial inequity exists in our public schools, why can’t we say it out loud? Today, racial inequity impacts Black girls’ lives in the exact same ways it impacted my girlhood and that of every Black girl in the generations before me. Our children deserve better.

Bridget D. Haney is a historian of Black girlhood in the late 19th and 20th centuries. She lives in midtown Kansas City.