GAO study: Segregation worsening in U.S. schools
America's public schools, 62 years after the historic Brown v.
GAO study: Segregation worsening in U.S. schools America's public schools, 62 years after the historic Brown v. Check out this story on USATODAY.com: http://usat.ly/1TmgTQS
Greg Toppo, USATODAY Published 5:37 p.m. ET May 17, 2016 | Updated 6:36 p.m. ET May 17, 2016
Students, parents and educators rally at the Supreme Court in Washington, Tuesday, May 13, 2014, for the 60th anniversary Brown v. Board of Education decision that struck down the ìseparate but equalî concept established under Plessy v. Ferguson that kept schools segregated. New findings from the Government Accountability Office suggest that many U.S. schools have grown more segregated over the past several years. (AP Photo)(Photo: AP)
WASHINGTON — America's public schools – 62 years after the Supreme Court's historic Brown v. Board of Education decision – are increasingly segregated by race and class, according to new findings by Congress' watchdog agency that echo what advocates for low-income and minority students have said for years.
U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigators found that from the 2000-2001 to the 2013-2014 school year, both the percentage of K-12 public schools in high-poverty and the percentage comprised of mostly African-American or Hispanic students grew significantly, more than doubling, from 7,009 schools to 15,089 schools. The percentage of all schools with so-called racial or socio-economic isolation grew from 9% to 16%.
Researchers define "isolated schools" as those in which 75% or more of students are of the same race or class.
Such schools, investigators found, offered disproportionately fewer math, science and college-prep courses and had higher rates of students who
were held back in ninth grade, suspended or expelled.
What's more, GAO investigators found, public charter schools, a key strategy in improving education for such students, may take minority and poor students from larger more diverse public schools and enroll them into less diverse schools.
Overall, investigators found, Hispanic students tended to be "triple segregated" by race, economics and language.
The report, requested by Congress in 2014, on the 60th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision that struck down the 'separate but equal' laws that segregated schools, was released on Tuesday, on its 62nd anniversary.
U.S. Rep. John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat and one of two lawmakers who requested the study, said it "confirms what has long been feared and proves that current barriers against educational equality are eerily similar to those fought during the civil rights movement. There simply can be no excuse for allowing educational apartheid in the 21st century."
U.S. Education Secretary John King said on Tuesday that the nation's schools "have made a lot of progress in providing educational equity and opportunity for all students," with record high graduation rates and lower dropout rates for African-American and Latino. "But we still have a long way to go."
King added, "Six decades after Brown v. Board, we have failed to close opportunity and achievement gaps for our African-American and Latino students at every level of education. And in far too many schools, we continue to offer them less — less access to the best teachers and the most challenging courses; less access to the services and supports that affluent students often take for granted, and less access to what it takes to succeed academically."
The segregation findings are not new to civil rights advocates, who for years have complained that U.S. schools are splintered by race and class. The Civil Rights Project at UCLA just this week reported that even as the number of minority students in U.S. public schools has grown over the past three decades, diversity has taken a hit in many schools. It noted that the percentage of "hyper-segregated schools, in which 90% or more of students are minorities, grew since 1988 from 5.7% to 18.4%.
GAO investigators recommended that the U.S. Department of Education analyze the civil rights data it collects to "further explore and understand issues and patterns of disparities."
In a letter responding to the findings, Catherine E. Lhamon, the department's assistant secretary for civil rights, said it already does this, "both internally and for external consumption." Lhamon said the report had prompted the department to consider whether it could do more analysis of the data.
But Deputy Assistant Attorney General Eve L. Hill said GAO's recommendation that the U.S. Department of Justice "systematically track" key information in desegregation cases was "premised on an erroneous understanding" of its civil rights division. Hill said the report "reflects a lack of understanding" about the division's document management procedures. "The Department carefully monitors each open desegregation case to which the United States is a party on a case-by-case basis, recognizing that each case is unique," she wrote. "The Department believes its procedures for tracking case-related data is adequate."
Hill also said the Supreme Court has held that a school with one race or virtually one race within a district "is not, in and of itself, the mark of a system that still practices segregation by law."
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