Opinions Regarding The Condition of Public Education Is Split Down Racial Lines.

A majority of adult Americans (60%) believes that African American or Hispanic students are just as likely as white students to get a good education in the United States. However, the public’s view is deeply divided across the lines of race and ethnicity. Only a third (34%) of African Americans believe that minority and white students in the U.S. are equally likely to get a good education. In contrast, twice as many whites (65%) believe this to be true. Hispanics’ views fall in between, with half (52%) reporting that African American and Hispanic students are just as likely as white students to get a good education. These are some of the results of a nationwide Harris Poll conducted online by Harris Interactive among 3,698 U.S. adults between March 18 and 29, 2004.

This month marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision. This legal decision declared racially segregated schools unconstitutional.

The survey shows that fifty years after the Brown v. Board of Education ruling, only a slim majority believe that equal opportunity exists in U.S. public education today. In addition, the groups who are supposed to have most benefited from the ruling — African Americans and Hispanics — are the least likely to feel that the playing field is even.

Other findings from this survey include:

— Half of all adult Americans (51%) indicate that they are very or somewhat familiar with the Brown v. Board of Education legal decision. An additional four in ten (43%) say that they are not very or not at all familiar with this ruling, and about one in twenty (6%) says that they are not sure about their level of familiarity with the ruling.

— Familiarity with Brown v. Board of Education is strongest amongst the African American public. African Americans (72%) are more likely than whites (47%) or Hispanics (52%) to be familiar with the Brown v. Board of Education legal decision.

— Half of all adults (53%) believe that public education in the United States has met the equal opportunity goal of the Brown v. Board of Education ruling.

— African Americans and Hispanics do not believe that U.S. public education has met the goal of equal opportunity. Three-quarters (77%) of African Americans and 61% of Hispanics believe that this goal has not been met, compared to 41% of whites who hold this view.

To view charts CLICK above on ‘More Images’.

For more information at http://www.harrisinteractive.com