Why Equality Matters

The history of equality from antiquity onward reveals that the notion of equality has been considered a constitutive feature of justice whether in its formal, proportional or moral sense. Until the 18th century, human beings were considered unequal by nature, an idea that collapsed with the introduction of the notion of natural right first developed by the Stoics and later in the New Testament Bible and both the Hebraic and Islamic traditions. The principle of natural equality only became recognized in the modern period beginning in the 17th century in the tradition of natural law as defined by Hobbes and Locke and in social contract theory first postulated by Rousseau. Kant's categorical imperative formulates the equality postulate of universal human worth and the idea is taken up formally in declarations and modern constitutions, notably the French "Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen" (1789)

("Déclaration des droits de l'Homme et du Citoyen&quot 1), the American "Declaration of Independence" (1776)(2), The US Constitution (1787)(3) and the "Universal Declaration of Human Rights" (1948)(4). As Stefan Gosepath (2007) explained, "This fundamental idea of equal respect for all persons and of the equal worth or equal dignity of all human beings ... is accepted as a minimal standard by all leading schools of modern Western political and moral culture." It has not always been so.

The landmark US Supreme Court decision of May 17, 1954, Brown v. the Board of Education, was a turning point for the US. The case initiated the modern civil rights movement. Chief Justice Warren delivered the opinion of the court: "We come then to the question presented: Does segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race, even though the physical facilities and other 'tangible' factors may be equal, deprive the children of the minority group of equal educational opportunities? We believe that it does ... We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." And he prefaced his opinion with the following statement:

Today, education is perhaps the most important function of state and local governments. Compulsory school attendance laws and the great expenditures for education both demonstrate our recognition of the importance of education to our democratic society. It is required in the performance of our most basic public responsibilities, even service in the armed forces. It is the very foundation of good citizenship. Today it is a principal instrument in awakening the child to cultural values, in preparing him for later professional training and in helping him to adjust normally to his environment. In these days, it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education. Such an opportunity, where the state has undertaken to provide it, is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms.[5]

As the Brown Foundation web site summary makes clear: "From the earliest times in American history, the US educational system mandated separate schools for children based solely on race. In many instances, the schools for African American children were substandard facilities with out-of-date textbooks and insufficient supplies." The first documented school desegregation case goes back to 1849 (Roberts v. City of Boston).(6) Yet, as James D. Anderson (2004) said, "A half century after the US Supreme Court found that segregated schools are inherently unequal, there is growing evidence that the nation's public schools are becoming more segregated and that academic achievement is becoming more unequal." He concluded with the comment: "The promises of Brown are unfulfilled and the nation has to face up to this reality. Let us not evade the problems by making African Americans the scapegoats for the nation's failure and giving them yet another cross to bear" (p. 371). His early work examined the ideological and institutional nature of schooling in the black South detailing the fact that "former slaves were the first among native southerners to depart from the planters' ideology of education and society and to campaign for universal, state-supported public education" (Anderson, 1988: 4).

The dream of educational equality was incorporated into early prototypes of the "Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen." Bergström (2010) indicates the right to education is seen as a second-generation right developing when social rights became prominent in the second half of the 19th century ... first in national normative instruments and later, in the second half of the 20th century, in international declarations and conventions.


Read the rest here: http://truth-out.org/news/item/8985-why-equality-matters