2. US Schools are More Segregated Today than in the 1950s

Source:
The Civil Rights Project, UCLA, January 2009
Title: “Reviving the Goal of an Integrated Society: A 21st Century Challenge”
Author: Gary Orfield

Student Researchers: Rena Hawkins, Southwest Minnesota State University
Melissa Robinson, Sonoma State University
Faculty Evaluator: Sangeeta Sinha, PhD
Southwest Minnesota State University

Schools in the United States are more segregated today than they have been in more than four decades. Millions of non-white students are locked into “dropout factory” high schools, where huge percentages do not graduate, and few are well prepared for college or a future in the US economy.

According to a new Civil Rights report published at the University of California, Los Angeles, schools in the US are 44 percent non-white, and minorities are rapidly emerging as the majority of public school students in the US. Latinos and blacks, the two largest minority groups, attend schools more segregated today than during the civil rights movement forty years ago. In Latino and African American populations, two of every five students attend intensely segregated schools. For Latinos this increase in segregation reflects growing residential segregation. For blacks a significant part of the reversal reflects the ending of desegregation plans in public schools throughout the nation. In the 1954 case Brown v. Board of Education, the US Supreme Court concluded that the Southern standard of “separate but equal” was “inherently unequal,” and did “irreversible” harm to black students. It later extended that ruling to Latinos.

The Civil Rights Study shows that most severe segregation in public schools is in the Western states, including California—not in the South, as many people believe. Unequal education leads to diminished access to college and future jobs. Most non-white schools are segregated by poverty as well as race. Most of the nation’s dropouts occur in non-white public schools, leading to large numbers of virtually unemployable young people of color.

Schools in low-income communities remain highly unequal in terms of funding, qualified teachers, and curriculum. The report indicates that schools with high levels of poverty have weaker staffs, fewer high-achieving peers, health and nutrition problems, residential instability, single-parent households, high exposure to crime and gangs, and many other conditions that strongly affect student performance levels. Low-income campuses are more likely to be ignored by college and job market recruiters. The impact of funding cuts in welfare and social programs since the 1990s was partially masked by the economic boom that suddenly ended in the fall of 2008. As a consequence, conditions are likely to get even worse in the immediate future.

In California and Texas segregation is spreading into large sections of suburbia as well. This is the social effect of years of neglect to civil rights policies that stressed equal educational opportunity for all. In California, the nation’s most multiracial state, half of blacks and Asians attend segregated schools, as do one quarter of Latino and Native American students. While many cities came under desegregation court orders during the civil rights era, most suburbs, because they had few minority students at that time, did not. When minority families began to move to the suburbs in large numbers, there was no plan in place to attain or maintain desegregation, appropriately train teachers and staff, or recruit non-white teachers to help deal with new groups of students. Eighty-five percent of the nation’s teachers are white, and little progress is being made toward diversifying the nation’s teaching force.

In states that now have a substantial majority of non-white students, failure to provide quality education to that majority through high school and college is a direct threat to the economic and social future of the general population. In a world economy, success is linked to formal education. Major sections of the US face the threat of declining education levels as the proportion of children attending inferior segregated schools continues to increase.

Rural schools also face severe segregation. In the days of civil rights struggles, small towns and rural areas were seen as the heart of the most intense racism. Of 8.3 million rural white students, 73 percent attend schools that are 80 to100 percent white.

Our nation’s segregated schools result from decades of systematic neglect of civil rights policy and related educational and community reforms.
According to the UCLA report, what is needed are leaders who recognize that we have a common destiny in an America where our children grow up together, knowing and respecting each other, and are all given the educational tools that prepare them for success in our society. The author maintains that if we are to continue along a path of deepening separation and entrenched inequality it will only diminish our common potential.

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Dfieufhjhudkfjeh

this was a great article! why in the world do we have segregation? it is just not fair!
Jordanpk96

funding in united states school systems reflect growing residential segregation. the fact is… this also leads to racial segregation due to our history of discrimination against minorities. funding the schools (mostly inner city and rural) that really need it is the answer. this does not mean stop funding other public schools however. this takes us to a bigger issue regarding the taxation of the wealthy. (they should no doubt be taxed more) in order to fund public schools and help the children of America succeed, we must spend our taxes on schools and other projects that protect those who need a chance at opportunity. I can speak firsthand, having moved from the inner city to the suburbs. I saw a dramatic change and realized the truth. my level of education has increased and it’s not right. ( im not saying thats a bad thing, im just saying its unfair that i couldnt get as good of an education in the city schools) Also the number of minorities attending my new school is much less. equal opportunity who’s with me!!?
MikeC

Guys… 500 years of racial dictatorship. 500 years of legally discriminating, stealing land, killing, abusing for slave labor — 50 years of democracy where racism is still institutionalized. Just because segregation was made illegal… does not mean everything went to equal. There are still years and generations of wealth and fortune not given to people of color.
Hannahcstone

i think we should all be in schools together not to be seperatedd some people become best friends in schools so i think we sould not let only be the whites be speciel but i think all should be speciel!!!!!!!
preetyeyez

i feel that this is a very touchy subject. there is no such thing as black on white crime or vice versa. u like who u like. i am an african amerian. my mom is black and indian. and my dad is black and jamican. but just about all my friends are a different race then me. i am social. theres black people hating their own race for stupid reason. there are whites hating the fact of issolation. life is too short to be discriminating aginst someone becuz of the way they look, or the color of their skin. i can go on and on about why racism is wrong, but i dont have the time. people fear what they dont understand, and they hate what they fear. but just because its different dont meant that its better or worse. all it means is that its human.. if we were all perfect we wouldnt be here because a perfect man or women could not exist in an unperfect world..so be who u are and love who you are. who ever dont like it, the hell with them.
Thecoutz

I think that they still suffer because of their attitudes and actions. I also think it is their fault things are still like they are. If they would change the way they act and make their areas safer they would change their lives and those not here yet. I grow up in the hood and have seen this first hand.
Young&Determined

You aren’t very intelligent are you? I’m sorry to tell this to you this hun but not all black people act a certain way, and the ones who do don’t know any better. Some of them have never stepped outside of the ghetto and some of them never will. So tell me, how are they supposed to learn any better if they aren’t given an opportunity to do so? Is the knowledge of how to live a more quality life than what they have learned all their lives for generations supposed to just fall out of the sky and into their brains? Are they supposed to just wake up one day and just decide to undo what has been done for hundreds of years? NO!! That is humanly impossible. That takes time and opportunity, which is something that many young black kids don’t have nor know how to get. Many of them will never have the chance to even gain an opportunity to become something because they will die at a young age for being black. For example TRAVON MARTIN!!
Pinkballetshoesxoxo

I honestly think the school system isn’t at fault for the students under achievements. But the students themselves ruin it for themselves. I attended a high school in los angeles that was 50% black, 30% Hispanic and 20% other. Every one got the same education received the same classes. But while the black people spent their time in class asleep wrote on the books issued to them, tagged the schools wall, the white and Asian kids spent their time involved in school activities, they spent their lunch time studying or doing homework. they took mostly honers and ap classes. and they didn’t tag on the walls or destroyed school property. The school I attended was once one of the best high schools in Los Angeles, everyone wanted to go there. But when the schools had to be unsegregated the school had to bring student from minority communities. Those students brought low test scores didn’t care much about anything and ruin it for the current students. Slowly white students began to leave and the school that once had the highest test scores had the lowest. I always saw the white students at my high school actually care and they always got involved they had the same materials and same teachers as the black and hispanic kids but why did they actually care? Blacks began to form gangs, and there was always fights at my school. I never blamed the school but the students the students are the once that make the difference the materials are given to us,and is our job to make whats best of what we have not ruin it. I strongly feel that students who do not want to go to school to actually learn shouldn’t go. What good do they bring? they lower test scores, and waste tax money. I see many minorities ruin what once were good schools. not all of them do, but most do. I feel that “good schools” shouldn’t be ruin by minorities, because thats what is happening but the minorities that actually want to learn and participate in school activities should be welcomed. Why is the government forcing students to go to school if they don’t want to? Instead of wasting their time sleeping in class rooms they should work and pay taxes.
Confederates Won!

I agree in which you say “millionaires pay the majority of all taxes”, but millionaires have nothing to do with segregation in education. Welfare and all these other *helpful resources* are being taken for granted and people abuse of it. It is no ethnicity’s fault, but how corrupt the government has become. I do not go to a segregated school, but yet I’m Mexican. Everyone can receive a great education, but it also depends how much hope the person has. I go to one of the top 10 high schools in California and the majority of us are Latinos. Not a Private School! Everyone can strive for the better.
Jujube

Today there there exists a strong argument FOR segregation. Blacks have made it their duty to be miserable blamers unwilling to accept their own role in making their plight in America. Violence towards caucasians and asians has become epidemic and this will be the cause of further segregation like in the jails of Los Angeles. Louis Farrakhan advocates an entire state for blacks, I think he is right.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1485266535 Rebecca Castle

I wish it was mandatory for every person in the United States, all persons to work in an Emergency Room, a busy one for two years, your prejudice and indignation would go away. Everyone is on an even playing field, the patients and the workers, Doctors, nurses, aides, and all others have to work as a complete team to save lives and ease the suffering of all races, ages, genders. I think it would be good to see we all bleed, we all hurt, we all die and we all have the ability to love.
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Alexiskstuart

oh im sorry, did i DECIDE to be a white girl when i was born? yep i said lemme be a white girl just so i could piss minorities off and be expected to hang my head in shame my whole life just because of what my ancestors did… oh thats right there not my ancestors! my ancestors were living in ireland and russia at the time and most white people arent even related to the same people who enslaved black people back then because those people were the british and thats not all of europe! and its not like british people chose to enslave blacks out of all minorities, your “people” back then were tribes who were fighting each other and selling victems who survived the fights to the british for slaves. your own people gave you away as slaves! and im not saying what the british (not all white people) did was right but dont blame it on people alive today. and we wouldnt be helpless without blacks or any ethnicity except asians who are super smart and everybody knows that!
Guest

You’re
funny and absolutely correct.
Africans did sell each other. However what you failed to add in there
is that EUROPEANS, and not just the damn British, came over and
decided to also buy and sell slaves. Now the funny thing about this
is that well Africans, by European standards, didn’t know any better
because the majority of them knew nothing about any type of religion
that says that treating your fellow man indecently is, with out a
doubt, wrong. However, most EUROPEANS were Catholics which not only
means that they knew better, they also very much chose to ignore and
in most cases use their religion to justify what they were
doing…BUYING AND SELLING SLAVES. Now neither of them were correct
in their actions so don’t think that I am trying to justify the
actions of the Africans because I am not. However doing something out
of ignorance and doing something simply because you choose to, are
two very different things. I’m so tired of white people using that
bullshit excuse as a justification for what your ancestors did. And
before you get upset and find some other bull to say in response to
me, let me just say that I am not upset about what Caucasian’s
ancestors did to my ancestors. What I have a problem with is
the repercussions of
their actions. I won’t even go as far back as slavery to prove my
point. I’ll just go back 60yrs ago to JIM CROW DAYS. I chose 60yrs
because my mother is 60 and lived through that crock of utter
bullshit. Black people today are still suffering from that time when
we were all “separate but
equal”.
Guest

Do
you know that there are still places IN THE US that treat ALL
minorities
like fucking second class citizens? You
probably don’t know about those places. I bet you’re one of
those people who think
that just because black people have gained a little compared to your
lot that we owe you a thank you and a “forget about it” for
all that you have done for us ungrateful, ignorant minorities.
Many of you feel that way I have come to find through socializing
with you. This country was built for white superiority and
certain laws make sure that it upholds this so called superiority.
Many white people don’t notice of-coarse because
the laws are made FOR YOU!! Why would you notice or care as long as
you aren’t being mistreated. It’s quite easy to turn a blind eye to
things that aren’t affecting you. Just as you didn’t choose to be
white we didn’t choose to be black or born in a country that hate the
very idea of any type of black affirmative action.
Whether you want to admit it or not or even believe it or not, black
people are still being treated as second class citizens and if
you don’t believe me simple compare our living conditions, our
schools, and our jobs. It is no coincidence that black people are
still at the bottom of the totem poll. And it’s not because we’re all
lazy and worthless either. We only make up 13% of America. Half of
that percent is locked up as soon as they are old enough to hold
their head high and have some pride about themselves. Half of whats
left is shot or killed by each other out of ignorance or by the
police out of ignorance. Half of what’s left is working 2 or 3 jobs
trying to make it out of the ghetto and whatever is left is on
welfare. It’s a ignorant cycle that just goes on and on no one is
trying to do anything about it. Those who know about the issue choose
to ignore it either cause it’s not them suffering or because it is no
longer them suffering and
others
are just mostly ignorant to what is going on and so choose to believe
the bullshit that they see and read in the media about how black
people are just the worst kind of people. We aren’t. Most of us are
just uneducated, because some of us have to drop out of school to get
jobs to help out our parents, and need a chance just a chance to be
raised in a stable environment , like most Caucasians are, and given
the opportunity to
thrive and flourish. I assure the if any children were
actually given a honest to God equal opportunity to succeed,
they would all make if they chose to do so. Most blacks are at a
disadvantage from birth simply because they were born black, but I
suppose that you will never understand that because you don’t really
care because our struggle for true equality don’t affect you other
than making most Caucasians feel like we have too many liberties.
Lovekindnessspecial

I agree with you and I am sheltered black girl. I did have a parent who did save up money an his parents had a little something and his house was paid for and he paid his dad back. I live now just paying taxes in that house of my grandpa. It makes a difference but, If you never try to find a way out you won’t. I lived in a middle class area, but you have to want the education an hey I’ve been in and out of college classes since 1991 and still going. stop blaming and start fighting for your own goals in life and then reach back and help someone else who can not see or don’t have the will to even try to make a better life for themselves or others look at the sucessful black stories all had to overcome something.
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tryrtty

Silentillusion1213 are you barack obama.
angel

hi
Drew

That is a brilliant idea for a t-shirt…
Drew

Grammar dude… you want respect then learn how to write better. I don’t give a shit what your race is. As for what my white ancestors did. What, spent WAY longer as servants, serfs, slaves and what ever else the ruling class in Europe could think of… Including baking them like Jew pies. Screw you, if you think yours was the first people dominated by the elite you really are dumb. As for your fact about whites being helpless without blacks and minorities… same back at ya dude… There is a gap in socioeconomic status because multiple generations of a step-up went by, and blacks are still working to level that out. It may take 5 more generations… Just give meth some time it will bring plenty of whiteys down… In the mean time, I am not going to feel like I owe you or anyone else anything except the respect they show me they deserve. You want reparations, invent a time machine and go back to when that shit was promised and see about getting it. Then let me borrow that time machine, there are a few old white bastards I’d like to go pimp slap for causing all this crap.
Drew

That’s how I became a white dude… I was like… hmm, how can I piss off 90% of the planet. Oh, I’ll be a middle-class, white, atheist, American with no sympathy (doesn’t mean I have no empathy… I just don’t care)… I believe I have successfully pissed off 99% of the world… the 1% are those with a sense of humor… or future super villains…
Drew

You are shitty at socializing… Step it up a couple notches. If you are talking to white people who like reality tv, they are like the bottom of the barrel. I don’t need a thank you, but I would like black people to stop using me as an example of a slaver. or my people… My relatives never owned slaves… Trust me, I can track half my relatives entrance into the US to 1935 when they were trying to avoid becoming Sweeney Hitler’s meat pies. You wanna talk about a crap life, go find a couple Armenians… They are hard to find huh?… Keep looking, I’ll wait… The other half of my relatives showed up in Iowa when it was first being settled, and they decided to farm corn and pigs… not a big slave crop… Lumping all white people together is like lumping all black people together. I owe you nothing, and I will give you nothing until you earn it.
Drew

The reason you work there is because you suck at English grammar. Yes, this is an internet forum, but have a little respect. When you brag about your job you should at least try to prove that you deserve to be an educator. I’m white, and I have the distinct privilege of teaching in an entirely homogenous school. There is only one race of people at my school, and they all speak the same language. But it is Korean. You want a really fun job, come over to this side of the big pond and try your hand at teaching in another country. Where nobody really understands you.

It’s fun! And if you think you are a minority now, wait til you get to a country that is 95% one race…
http://www.facebook.com/JennyKateFarrell Jenny Farrell

Amen to that and True words there!