New evidence that U.S. schools are resegregating

WASHINGTON – Poor, black and Hispanic children are becoming increasingly isolated from their white, affluent peers in the nation’s public schools, according to new federal data released Tuesday, 62 years after the Supreme Court decided that segregated schools are “inherently unequal” and therefore unconstitutional.

That landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education began the dismantling of the dual school systems – one for white kids, one for black students – that characterized so many communities across the country. It also became a touchstone for the ideal of public education as a great equalizer, an American birthright meant to give every child a fair shot at success.

But that ideal appears to be unraveling, according to Tuesday’s report from the Government Accountability Office.

The number of high-poverty schools that serve primarily black and brown students more than doubled between 2001 and 2014, the GAO found. The proportion of such schools— where more than 75 percent of children receive free or reduced-price lunch, and more than 75 percent are black or Hispanic— climbed from 9 percent to 16 percent during the same period.

The problem is not just that students are more isolated, according to the GAO, but that minority students who are concentrated in high-poverty schools don’t have the same access to opportunities as students in other schools.

High-poverty, majority-black and Hispanic schools were less likely to offer a full range of math and science courses than other schools, for example, and more likely to use expulsion and suspension as disciplinary tools, according to the GAO.

The GAO conducted its study during the past two years at the request of Democratic lawmakers including Virginia Rep. Bobby Scott, the ranking Democrat on the House education committee, and Michigan Rep. John Conyers, the ranking Democrat on the House judiciary committee.

Conyers and Scott were scheduled to speak at a news conference Tuesday afternoon to announce legislation that would make it easier for parents to sue school districts for civil rights violations.

Scott said the GAO report provided evidence of an “overwhelming failure to fulfill the promise of Brown.”

“Segregation in public K12 schools isn’t getting better; it’s getting worse, and getting worse quickly, with more than 20 million students of color now attending racially and socioeconomically isolated public schools,” he said in a statement Tuesday.

The resegregation of schools during the past two decades has for the most part happened quietly, in the shadows of loud battles over standardized testing, teacher evaluations, charter schools and Common Core academic standards.

Segregation has returned to the forefront of education policy discussions only recently, amid broad public debates about race, racism and widening inequality.

The persistence of racial divisions in the nation’s public schools was underscored Friday when a federal judge ordered a Mississippi district to integrate its middle and high schools, capping a legal battle that had dragged on for five decades.

As the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi put it, Cleveland, Miss. – a town of 12,000 bisected by railroad tracks that divided white families from black – has been running an illegal dual system for its children, failing year after year to reach the “greatest degree of desegregation possible.”

Now Cleveland must consolidate its schools, integrating all its students into one middle school and one high school.

“The delay in desegregation has deprived generations of students of the constitutionally-guaranteed right of an integrated education,” Judge Debra Brown wrote in her decision.

The Rev. Edward Duvall, an African-American parent of two children in Cleveland’s public schools, said he favored consolidation because it would save money, leaving more funding for classrooms and programs. But that wasn’t the only reason: “We can break down this wall of racism that divides us and keeps us separated,” he said, according to court documents. “And we could create a new culture in our school system that’s going to unite us and unite our whole city.”

While schools in Cleveland have never fully desegregated, many other school districts did integrate following the decision in Brown v. Board. But since the 1990s, hundreds of school districts have been released from court-ordered desegregation plans, making way for renewed divisions by race and class.

In 1972, just 25 percent of black students in the South attended the most segregated schools, in which more than 90 percent of students were minorities, according to a 2014 ProPublica investigation. But in districts that emerged from court oversight between 1990 and 2011, more than half of students now attend such segregated schools, ProPublica found.

The investigation found fault with a Justice Department that, starting with the Reagan administration, pulled back from pressuring districts on desegregation and was “no longer committed to fighting for the civil-rights aims it had once championed.”

At the same time as federal courts were relinquishing oversight of school desegregation, the nation’s overall student population was changing, becoming poorer and less white. More than half of students are now low-income, as measured by eligibility for subsidized meals. Hispanic students have replaced black students as the largest minority group in schools, accounting for 25 percent of the overall student population.

But the growing number of minority and low-income children in the nation’s schools does not mean that their segregation is inevitable, according to Education Secretary John King Jr.

Just weeks after assuming the helm of the U.S. Education Department in January, King began calling on communities to find ways to diversify their schools.

“We should do more to implement smart strategies that achieve socioeconomic diversity in schools,” he said, speaking to educators in Philadelphia. “We value that diversity, because that diversity can support academic achievement and because it is a helpful path to ensure the kind of resource equity that we need.”

King was more pointed this month, speaking of a “systematic lack of investment in high-needs communities and high-needs kids” that is made possible by policy choices that create segregated housing and segregated schools.

“The lack of concern for poor people is deeply disturbing,” King said.

Advocates for desegregation as an essential tool for closing the nation’s persistent achievement gap have criticized the Obama administration for giving lip service to the issue without taking meaningful steps to address it.

Obama’s current proposed budget, unlikely to win approval from a GOP-led Congress, includes a $120 million grant program meant to help local communities diversify their schools, such as through magnet programs or dual-language classrooms that could draw middle-class families into high-poverty schools.

There are still plenty of challenges associated with such efforts. Officials in one urban district told the GAO that their popular magnet schools had to deny admission to some minority students in order to maintain diversity. And they poured so many resources into those schools that the traditional neighborhood schools – which enrolled large concentrations of minority students – suffered.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

Customers enter and exit the Costco on Dec. 2, 2022, in Lake Stevens. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Costco stores could be impacted by looming truck driver strike threat

Truck drivers who deliver groceries and produce to Costco warehouses… Continue reading

Two Washington State ferries pass along the route between Mukilteo and Clinton as scuba divers swim near the shore Sunday, Oct. 22, 2023, in Mukilteo, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Ferry system increases ridership by a half million in 2024

Edmonds-Kingston route remains second-busiest route in the system.

The peaks of Mount Pilchuck, left, and Liberty Mountain, right, are covered in snow on Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025 in Lake Stevens, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Western Washington’s current winter drought may not last through the season

Even with last week’s snow flurries, there’s no denying this… Continue reading

A view of a homes in Edmonds, Washington on Friday, Sept. 8, 2023. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Snohomish County to mail property tax statements this month

First half payments are due on April 30.

Ticket and ORCA card kiosks at the Lynnwood Light Rail station on Thursday, April 4, 2024 in Lynnwood, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Beginning March 1, Community Transit to reduce some fares

Riders eligible for reduced fares will pay $1 for a single ORCA card tap and $36 for a monthly pass.

Robin Cain with 50 of her marathon medals hanging on a display board she made with her father on Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025 in Lake Stevens, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Running a marathon is hard. She ran one in every state.

Robin Cain, of Lake Stevens, is one of only a few thousand people to ever achieve the feat.

People line up to grab food at the Everett Recovery Cafe on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Coffee, meals and compassion are free at the Everett Recovery Cafe

The free, membership-based day center offers free coffee and meals and more importantly, camaraderie and recovery support.

Devani Padron, left, Daisy Ramos perform during dance class at Mari's Place Monday afternoon in Everett on July 13, 2016. (Kevin Clark / The Herald)
Mari’s Place helps children build confidence and design a better future

The Everett-based nonprofit offers free and low-cost classes in art, music, theater and dance for children ages 5 to 14.

The Everett Wastewater Treatment Plant along the Snohomish River on Thursday, June 16, 2022 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Everett water, sewer rates could jump 43% by 2028

The rate hikes would pay for improvements to the city’s sewer infrastructure.

The bond funded new track and field at Northshore Middle School on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024 in Bothell, Washington. (Courtesy of Northshore School District)
Northshore School District bond improvements underway

The $425 million bond is funding new track and field complexes, playgrounds and phase one of two school replacements.

The amphitheater at Deception Pass during the 2021 concert series. (Photo provided by Deception Pass Park Foundation Facebook page.)
Deception Pass Foundation seeks Adopt-A-Trail volunteers

If you’re looking for a way to get outside and… Continue reading

A pedestrian is struck and killed by vehicle Wednesday in Everett

The pedestrian was a man in his 60s. The collision happened at 5:30 a.m. on Broadway.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.