can-Americans in urban areas. And third, the gap between white and African-American achievement remains substantial. The minority population of these United States is growing, and in many geographic areas, the term minority has lost its statistical meaning. Around the year 2020, one-third of our nation will be minority, including Asian Americans. (Whitman, 86) By the last quarter of the 21st century, as a result of immigration and differing birth rates, minorities may have become the majority. This nation is not preparing to meet this change. In our schools, the future is already upon us. In our country, between 1968 and 1986, the number of white school children fell by sixteen percent, the number of black children increased by five percent, and the number of Hispanic children increased by one hundred percent. While there has been some success in school desegregation over the last twenty-five years, in general segregation has not decreased significantly since 1970. In fact, in some areas it has gotten worse. Today, 22 or 23 of the 25 largest central-city school districts in this nation are predominantly minority. Perhaps desegregation is not the key. Possibly there are other, more important factors on which we should focus if we are ever to provide a quality education for all our children. Maybe the push to raise test scores, to institute competency tests, and to increase teacher standards without addressing root causes of the problems has hurt more than it has helped. African-Americans have long understood that education, above all, is the way to freedom and opportunity. For centuries, we have fought for an educational system that responds to the needs of our children. Without some very definite change in the way we view our interdependence on each other, perhaps the need for this discussion will be with us in the year 2033, 40 years from now. In 1999, many public schools across the nation resembled the school districts of the 50's a...
