Ernie Chambers and the people who voted in favor of this measure should be ashamed of themselves. This law is unconstitutional, self-serving for certain parties involved and the ramifications of such a precedent--badly analyzed if at all. Parity in school districts has more to do with the financial well being of the districts based on the funds provided by their tax base not race. Most places still use property taxes and lately a portion of state run lottery proceeds to supplement school budgets--once again nothing to do with race.
Unfortunately, in the United States, race is linked to individual and institutional fiscal well-being. The legacy of our brand of racism is poverty and poor education. African-Americans and other minorities have historically been systematically denied equal access to education and the financial security afforded by a better education and access to jobs. Jim Crow laws made this legal. Once such laws were abolished social behaviors based on race and class prejudices supported such inequalities. Now, there are those who wish to make such behaviors "legal" in the name of communal control. The logic of this eludes me. A good education for those utilizing the public school system in our age is reliant on appropriate funding and staffing. To absolve suburban communities of responsibility for their urban counterparts is ethically questionable, does nothing to promote equal education for all, and validates the racist ideology which persists in our country.
D.M.H.
Law to Segregate Omaha Schools Divides Nebraska
By SAM DILLON
Published: April 15, 2006
OMAHA, April 14 — Ernie Chambers is Nebraska's only African-American state senator, a man who has fought for causes including the abolition of capital punishment and the end of apartheid in South Africa. A magazine writer once described him as the "angriest black man in Nebraska."
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