Biden announces new grants to further desegregate schools on anniversary of Brown v. Board

President Joe Biden announced new grants Friday aimed at further desegregating magnet schools as he marked the 70th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court that desegregated America’s public schools.

“My Department of Education is investing $300 million, including an additional $20 million announced today to support diversity in our schools,” Biden said during a speech at an NAACP event at National African American Museum of History and Culture.

The $20 million in new grants will go to school districts in Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Carolina and Texas to create magnet programs aimed at “ attract students from different social, economic, ethnic and racial backgrounds,” the White House said. said.

The Department of Education released a report earlier this week revealing that educational gaps remain between Black and Latino students and their white counterparts in high school math, science and computer science.

The White House presents these measures as an effort to “continue the work” of the historic Supreme Court decision.

“After the Brown v. Board decision, public schools were integrated gradually — and often far too slowly. Graduation rates for Black and Latino students, however, increased significantly,” Biden said. “The Brown decision confirms a simple idea: we learn better when we learn together.”

Biden used his speech to take on his political rival, former President Donald Trump, whom he referred to simply as “my predecessor.”

“My predecessor and his extremist MAGA friends now seek diversity, equity and inclusion across America. They want a country for some, not for all,” the president said.

Biden sought to draw a contrast between himself and Trump.

“I always believed that the promise of America was big enough for everyone to succeed, and I mean that, for everyone to succeed,” Biden said. “This is what Brown is all about. This is what we are all about. This is what America is all about.”

The grant announcement is part of a broader, multi-day push by the Biden administration to win over Black voters his campaign is counting on in November’s presidential election.

On Thursday, the administration announced it was taking the next formal steps to reclassify marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III. Additionally, Biden met Thursday with the plaintiffs in the landmark Brown case and their families.

“Once upon a time, they were excluded from certain classrooms. But 70 years later, they are in the most important room of all, the Oval Office, where they belong,” Biden said. “They are a living reminder that once upon a time, not so long ago.”

Biden added that despite this progress, there is still much to do.

Biden also said that before his remarks Friday, he met with the “Little Rock Nine,” the children who were the first to integrate their district’s public schools in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Later Friday, Biden was scheduled to meet privately with leaders of the historically black “Divine Nine” fraternities and sororities, before traveling this weekend to deliver the commencement speech at Morehouse College in Atlanta.

“The founders of Morehouse understood something fundamental: Education is linked to freedom,” Biden said. “Because being free means having something that no one can ever take away from you. And that’s the power of education. That’s why Brown’s decision to commemorate today is so important.”

Biden also used his remarks to tout the work his administration is doing in higher education to ease the economic burden on young people.

“While college degrees are still a ticket to the middle class, that ticket is becoming too expensive,” Biden said. “Too many black youth and students face unsustainable debt in exchange for a college degree.”

Michelle Stoddart contributed to this report.