Balance (1965 - 1990)
Inputs and Equality
Policy aimed at making educational inputs equal included efforts at desegregation and compensatory education for minority and low-income students who did not receive the same educational opportunities as middle-class children.
Elementary and Secondary Education Act
The federal government's Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) provided funding and legal backing for these policy initiatives.
ESEA was initially passed in 1965 as part of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society program. Congress passed eight major reauthorizations of the ESEA between 1968 and 1994. ESEA's compensatory education program, "Title I" became the most well-known component of the act. "Title I" authorized the administration of federal aid to schoolchildren affected by poverty. "Title IX" of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 forbade discrimination based on sex in education. ESEA oversaw compliance of "Title IX."
ESEA became entangled with the controversy over court-ordered desegregation and busing because of the nondiscrimination compliance provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
In 1990, a further amendment to ESEA, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), provided opportunities to special education children for integration into regular classrooms and legal remedies to guarantee their educational opportunities.
ESEA and its funding of remedial programs validated the "cultural deprivation" model. This model provided a rationale for understanding why low-income and minority children did poorly in education. It suggested that low-income neighborhoods and families lacked certain financial, cultural, and educational resources to encourage academic success in children.
The programs that grew out of the ESEA continued to serve minority and low-income populations throughout this period. In this way, educational policy and legislation at the state, federal, and institutional level valued equity of educational opportunity.
Federal Courts and Desegregation
Between the mid-1960s and the 1980s, court rulings on school desegregation favored, first, government imposed, non-voluntary actions to desegregate schools, then later in the period more limited and voluntary actions to desegregate schools.
A number of federal cases favored efforts at desegregation throughout the 1960s. However, by the mid 1970s, other cases began to limit remedies for desegregation.
The 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, decision prohibited segregated schooling. The 1968 Green v. County School Board of New Kent County decision stated that voluntary plans for desegregation were unconstitutional violations of the principles of the 1954 Brown decision. The 1971 Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg (North Carolina) decision legitimized busing as a legal remedy for school desegregation.
The 1974 Millikin v. Bradley decision rejected cross-district busing plans to desegregate schools. In this case, suburban schools were not required to take part in a city-wide busing plan.
Legal actions concerning minority issues also shaped educational policy and led to further federal involvement in educational affairs. Court cases on school desegregation, sex discrimination, and affirmative action led to major changes at all levels of education.
