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And yet 50 percent of the kids who start high school in the United States today do not finish high school.

At present, black children are more segregated in their public schools than at any time since 1968. In the inner-city schools I visit, minority children typically represent 95 percent to 99 percent of class enrollment.

It is a commonplace by now to say that the urban school systems of America contain a higher percentage of Negro children each year.

Progress for black Americans depends on good schools because education is the last great equalizer.

I have a father who was the first black student at his junior high and high school and had to do a lot to get to that point.

In fact, the Harvard study data indicates that 70 percent of African American children attend schools that are predominately African American, about the same level as in 1968 when Dr. King died.

Rich kids work hard. Most black kids aren't working hard enough.

Even schools for Negroes, then, are places where they must be convinced of their inferiority.

Every kid, every minority kid can be so successful if they focus on their education.

Students of color who attended integrated schools in the decades immediately following Brown were more likely to graduate high school, go to college, earn higher wages, live healthier lifestyles, and not have a criminal record than their peers in segregated schools.