Supporters of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity are heading to Albany today to mark the anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education by proclaiming themselves as its true heirs. They view the CFE’s successful lawsuit, which essentially forces New York State to provide more money for public schools, as completing the promise of the Supreme Court’s majestic ruling, 50 years ago this week, against racial segregation.

The chancellor of the New York City schools, Joel Klein, endorsed this view in testimony at the City Council on Tuesday, calling it a “bitter irony” that most of the city’s black students remain trapped in squalid public schools. “More than a generation later, we know that equal opportunity only begins with the right to enter the same school building as other children,” Mr. Klein said. “But the sad truth remains, as our own state courts have ruled, that New York State is not providing New York City public schools with the financial resources necessary to give all our students a sound basic education.”

By this logic, the elected officials of New York State in the 21st century are little better than the white supremacists who defied the Brown ruling during the 1950s and 1960s. No one is content with the condition and performance of public schools in this city. Their de facto segregation is shameful. Nor are many defending the state’s arcane formula for distributing education aid, which, like much of what comes out of Albany, owes more to political calculation than policymaking.

We might even accept the Court of Appeals’ central finding in the CFE case — that the New York City schools are not providing the basic education guaranteed by the state constitution. What is harder to credit is the court’s solution, which essentially requires taxpayers to throw money at the problem. In its ruling last summer, the high court gave state officials until July 30 to determine what it will cost to give all New York City school children the chance for a decent high school education and come up with a plan for delivering the money.

This has triggered a flurry of “studies,” purporting to calculate with scientific precision how many billions of dollars it will take to improve this situation, as if the education system were a well-tuned engine that would run faster if only someone would hit the gas pedal. But if money were the determinant of educational quality, New York State would already boast the finest schools in the country. Including state, local, and federal funds, it spends on average almost $12,000 a student, more than any other state. Even the city schools’ budget, at about $11,400 a student, exceeds the national average and spending in surrounding states.

What prevents the city schools from doing a good job is not so much a lack of money as a lack of competition. Mr. Klein and Mayor Bloomberg deserve credit for their efforts, particularly their bid to do away with the union rules that protect teachers and other employees at the expense of doing what’s best for the children. Their uphill slog is only just beginning, however. Meanwhile, the predominantly minority children of the New York City schools are just as trapped as their great-grandparents were in the days of Plessy v. Ferguson.

What prevents them from escaping today is not institutional racism, but a fundamental lack of choice. Poor parents of all races have no choice but to accept the education that the government-run monopoly mandates for their children. Rich parents have choices for their children, but poor ones don’t.

If the schools remain segregated 50 years after Brown, it is along economic lines. The families with means have voted with their feet, fleeing to private schools and the suburbs. The charter schools movement is offering a similar way out to a limited number of poorer families, but even Mr. Bloomberg’s worthy plan to build 50 more of these privately run, publicly funded academies will not be enough.

The best way to spring public school children from their trap — and honor the legacy of Brown and Thurgood Marshall — would be to hand their parents a government-funded voucher good for tuition at the private school of their choice. By focusing on funding rather than choice, the unions, the school management, the courts and the legislature are missing the point.