Brown in Jerusalem : A Comparative Look on Race and Ethnicity in Public Schools

The devolution of control over public educational systems from the central government to localities has been justified by two sets of arguments: first, by free-market inspired "jurisdictional competition" theory; second, by multicultural ideology. Notwithstanding the advantages stemming from such decentralization efficiency, wealth-maximization, cultural accommodation this article identifies various harms associated with it, including problems of cooperation, distributive injustice, reproduction of pre-existing segregation along lines of race and ethnicity, and an accelerated fragmentation of the civic body. Examining the Israeli case and drawing analogies to the American example, the article provides a thick factual description and theoretical analysis of the way that background legal norms, social and economic baseline conditions and public choice dynamics have shaped public schools in both countries. This description especially reveals that the profound decentralization of Israel's public education system resulted in a deep segregation between Jews and Arabs as well as within the Jewish community, between Jews who emigrated from Arab countries (Mizrahi Jews) and Jews of European descent (Ashkenazi Jews) that threatens to undermine the main goals of a public education system in a liberal state. The structural similarities that this article finds between processes that took place in Israel and in the United States strengthens the realization that court decisions such as Brown, which can be narrowly construed as merely prohibiting state-sanctioned segregation, are incapable of fulfilling the promise of racial integration. This is why a Brown-like decision in Jerusalem, still much anticipated by many, might also prove to be a hollow hope. I thus conclude by pointing to various policy suggestions that can overcome the structural barriers that impede integration