Abstract
Even before the recent coronavirus pandemic, race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status played a powerful role in allocating opportunity—in the public schools and elsewhere. The pandemic has laid bare the dimensions of this inequality with a new and alarming clarity. In this essay, I first will focus on the landscape of educational inequity that existed before the coronavirus forced public schools to shut down. In particular, I will explore patterns of racial and ethnic segregation in America’s schools and how those patterns are linked to additional challenges based on socioeconomic isolation. In addition, I will consider the role of language and immigration status in shaping educational opportunity. As I will explain, children with the greatest educational need often attend schools with the fewest resources, thus compounding disadvantage.
Recommended Citation
Rachel F. Moran,
Persistent Inequalities, the Pandemic, and the Opportunity to Compete,
27 Wash. & Lee J. Civ. Rts. & Soc. Just. 589
(2021).
Available at: https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/crsj/vol27/iss2/9
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