NAACP calls for new campaign to rid schools of racial disparity

ATLANTA - NAACP leaders said Thursday that racial disparities in public education are so pronounced in Florida, Louisiana and Ohio that legal remedies are needed. <br> <br> John Jackson is education director for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He said the organization plans to file complaints against the three states with the federal Office of Civil Rights. <br> <br> The NAACP said it found that black and Hispanic children, as well as poor whites, in those states had larger classes, fewer resources, less-qualified teachers, reduced access to special education and gifted programs, more suspensions and expulsions and lower graduation rates. <br> <br> The announcement came at an education summit in Atlanta on the eve of the 48th anniversary of Brown versus Board of Education, the Supreme Court ruling that overturned school segregation. <br> <br> According to data provided by the NAACP, blacks represent 48 percent of enrolled students in public schools in Louisiana but 63 percent of those suspended, 74 percent of those expelled and 41 percent of those who graduate. <br> <br> Jackson said Florida, Louisiana and Ohio were selected in the first wave of action because of their large minority populations. Complaints against other states may follow.