Are Little Rock schools finally desegregated?

FIVE DECADES and $1 billion after an infamous racial episode made Little Rock, Arkansas, a national symbol of school segregation, the legal fight to ensure that all of its children receive equal access to education is almost over.

But many challenges still remain in Little Rock and across the country.

Some of the city's affluent white neighbourhoods have better schools. The district's black students on average have lower grades and test scores and more disciplinary problems than white students. And racial divisions linger within the integrated Central High School, where riots erupted in 1957 as Governor Orval Faubus tried to prevent black students from entering.

stubborn disparities

A day after a key desegregation lawsuit was settled, such stubborn disparities raised the question: Do all children in Little Rock now receive a high-quality education?

"No," said Joel E. Anderson, chancellor of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, who led a task force that produced a 1997 report on the future of the city's public schools.

"The plaintiffs in the lawsuit and school district officials have all made a monumental effort to achieve equal educational access for all children in the district, but there is still a considerable distance to go," Anderson said by email.

He said that the opening statement of the report still stands: If the people fighting for equality in 1957 could look ahead to the current Little Rock School District, "they almost certainly would have said, 'No, that is not what we are seeking'."

Monday's settlement established an end date for $70 million in annual state payments that fund desegregation efforts, including programmes that offer poor black students better opportunities and attract affluent white students into the district.