After Brown v. Board of Education and subsequent Supreme Court decisions ended de jure segregation, critics noted a disturbing pattern of "white flight" from urban public schools. According to Samuel G. Freedman of the New York Times, a similar phenomenon has lately surfaced in the black community, though few education commentators have taken note. Freedman says a growing number of African-American parents are opting to send their children to private schools that emphasize instruction in basic skills like phonics, grammar, and math, rather than the "progressive" curricula and constructivist pedagogies often found in urban public school classrooms. As evidence, he reports that minority enrollments in Catholic schools have risen from one-tenth in 1970 to more than 25 percent in 2004; that "some 400 historically black independent schools operate around the country"; and that voucher programs in Florida, Milwaukee, Cleveland, and Washington, D.C. enroll 33,000 pupils, most of them minorities. We agree with Freedman that "leaders in public education would be wise to pay attention to why a stable, devout, upwardly mobile segment of the African-American community is deserting."
"Black flight to private schools is growing," by Samuel Freedman, New York Times, May 19, 2004