Race and Education

How well this nation takes care of and prepares its children will define the long-term quality of life — culturally, socially, economically — in America, our ability to compete globally, and how we rank overall as a civil society on the world stage. There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it.

A federal study released last week on the achievement gap between black and white students in the nation’s major urban school systems paints a dismal picture. According to the statistics from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, considered the nation’s report card, in most major urban areas there has been little or no progress in closing the gap.