The Equal Educational Opportunity Act of 1974
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The Equal Educational Opportunities Act of 1974 prohibits deliberate segregation on the basis of race, color, and national origin.
The Act states that no U.S. state can deny equal educational opportunity to any one on the basis of gender, race, color, or nationality through intentional segregation by an educational institution. There will be no forced assignment of a student to a school other than the one closest to his or her place of residence because that promotes further segregation. There will be no segregation in determining faculty and staff by purposely transferring a student to another school to increase segregation.
The act also states that lawsuits may also be filed if individuals believe that they are denied equal education from their peers. The U.S. attorney general is also allowed to initiate civil action on behalf of students should he deem it necessary.
The act is still vague in its statutory language. The EEOA states that no state can deny students the right to equal education by "failure by an educational agency to take 'appropriate action' to overcome language barriers that impede equal participation by its students in its instructional programs." For example, although the act bears no mention of bilingual education, but instead uses the term "appropriate action" to describe measures Congress may take to enforce the EEOA, Congress has interpreted bilingual education as an action a school district must take to help teach non-English-speaking students how to speak English.
The Act states that no U.S. state can deny equal educational opportunity to any one on the basis of gender, race, color, or nationality through intentional segregation by an educational institution. There will be no forced assignment of a student to a school other than the one closest to his or her place of residence because that promotes further segregation. There will be no segregation in determining faculty and staff by purposely transferring a student to another school to increase segregation.
The act also states that lawsuits may also be filed if individuals believe that they are denied equal education from their peers. The U.S. attorney general is also allowed to initiate civil action on behalf of students should he deem it necessary.
The act is still vague in its statutory language. The EEOA states that no state can deny students the right to equal education by "failure by an educational agency to take 'appropriate action' to overcome language barriers that impede equal participation by its students in its instructional programs." For example, although the act bears no mention of bilingual education, but instead uses the term "appropriate action" to describe measures Congress may take to enforce the EEOA, Congress has interpreted bilingual education as an action a school district must take to help teach non-English-speaking students how to speak English.