Report: Schools In The South Are Becoming More Segregated

Students in New Orleans. Photo by Alex Brandon/AP

A recent report has discovered that public schools in the South are becoming more racially segregated.

Conducted by UCLA's Civil Rights Project and Penn State University's Center for Education and Civil Rights in 2014, the report found that more than one in three black students in the South attended a school that was intensely segregated. Schools in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia were examined for the study.

Following desegregation, the percentage of black students attending intensely segregated schools had dropped from 80 percent to 23 percent. However, that progress has diminished in recent years, with contact between black and white students in the South declining steadily.

"It is clear that the region is now moving backward in terms of the progress it made in desegregating schools," the study's authors concluded. "In fact, some states have recently created overtly racist policy proposals and rhetoric that simply ignores the reality: the region's future depends on developing the talents of the people who live there and are the fastest-growing segment of the population."

The report also offers some suggestions on how to combat the problem including educators and communities making a commitment to lasting diversity, state officials opposing breaking up school districts in ways that only worsens segregation, and a better understanding of house and school segregation on district, state, and regional levels.

Source via Atlanta Black Star