Thirty-five years after the decision in the Brown v. the Board of Education case that ruled schools must desegregate with all deliberate speed, Sheff v. O’Neill is still fighting segregation in public schools. Sheff v. O’Neill was a groundbreaking case that had a major impact on the rights of students to have a quality education and for the state of Connecticut to provide it. In April of 1989 the plaintiff Milo Sheff and his mother Elizabeth Horton Sheff, along with ten other families brought about the suit against the defendants William O’Neill, lieutenant governor of Connecticut, along with other state leaders. “This journey has become known around the State of Connecticut, and throughout the United States, as Sheff vs. O’Neill–a landmark …show more content…
Many students lived in areas widespread with gangs, drug deals, and drive by shootings. It was common place for the students to have parents that had to work two jobs to pay their bills and feed their family. The state wanted to improve the lives of their students so they quickly implemented the Education Improvement Panel. They were to explore how to improve teaching and learning, enhance the community and encourage parental involvement, and reduce racial isolation in the public-school systems. Besides the charter and magnet school the panel also started inter-district after-school, Saturday and summer programs, recruiting minority staff, inter district school building projects, and experiences to increase awareness of the diversity of individuals and cultures.
All these changes to the school system were good in the respect of segregating the schools but there was no timetable set was set for it to happen. It is over two decades later and the plan has only been half implemented. Only 41% of Hartford students are enrolled in schools that are diverse so the battle for educational equality is still being fought. Winning the case meant that schools could now become integrated and although it has taken time there are students that are seeing the benefits. Those who were in school while the trial was taking place have a different view …show more content…
O’Neill has transformed the education system of Connecticut and its policy. The legal and ethical issue of segregation of their schools has been addressed and the community of Hartford and citizens of Connecticut are trying to remedy the situation. Through the building of new schools to allow all students equal access they made a good start. There is still a lot of work to be done to ensure that all public schools are integrated in Hartford. Today as an educator the decision made by the case to integrate schools would impact educators by allowing them to teach a diverse classroom, but segregation still occurs. “Brown, Sheff, and the work-in-progress that is racial integration and social cohesion, though, won’t ever die, because the values of opportunity for all are embedded in our collective sense of America as a fair and decent nation” (Eaton, 2009, p. 399). Myself as a teacher would need to be sensitive to cultural differences and teach all students to the best of my ability and to give them the best education possible. Sheff v. O’Neill is a case that in my opinion shouldn’t even have happened. There should be no segregated schools and all children should have the opportunity for an equal education. It did happen though and I do believe that the decision was very much needed in the schools of Hartford. The children who attend school there now have a better chance at a diverse classroom and a better life because of the education they can