(upbeat music)
- If you've ever taken
a U.S. history class,
you've most likely seen photos like these.
Ones that might give the
impression that school segregation
used to be big problem and
then we took care of it,
and now it's a thing of the past.
Today America's school age population
is more racially diverse than ever before,
and that all might lead you to assume
that America's classrooms
are a whole lot more mixed
than they used to be, progress right?
(upbeat music)
There's been all these stories in the news
that basically say that
schools are actually getting
more racially segregated.
- The most recent data shows
the average white student
goes to a school that's
more than 70% white.
- [Male] The study ordered by
Congress found the percentage
of high-poverty schools with mostly
Black or Hispanic students has
more than doubled since 2000.
- So what's the real story here?
Okay, first a super quick
history lesson, hang with me.
It's been more than 60 years since
Brown v. Board of Education,
the landmark Supreme Court decision
that tossed out the argument
that schools could be
racially separate but still equal.
It was pretty obvious that
conditions in Black schools
were almost always much
worse than in white ones.
The court made a unanimous
decision that Black students
were being denied a quality education
and made school segregation
policies illegal.
Problem solved, right?
Actually not right away.
A lot of white communities in the south
fiercely resisted the new rules for years.
- And I say segregation
now, segregation tomorrow,
and segregation forever.
(cheering)
- It wasn't until about a
decade later when federal courts
literally forced districts to de-segregate
that things started to change.
Southern schools really
started to integrate
in the 1970's and 80's
because of new programs
like cross-district busing
that brought a mix of kids
from different communities
to the same schools.
In 1968, more than three quarters
of all Black students in the south
attended hyper-segregated schools.
20 years later, that rate had dropped
to less than a quarter of all students.
There are lots of
historical studies showing
that this change had an
overwhelming positive impact
on Black student achievement,
with pretty much no negative
impacts for white students.
But not everyone was happy
with a more racially
integrated school system.
A new generation of conservative judges
rejected the idea that
the federal government
should be in the business of forcing
local schools to integrate.
Districts throughout the south
and some in the north too,
begin to drop their
controversial busing programs,
which many community members
had rebelled against for years.
There were other factors too,
including what's called white flight,
when a large number of mostly
white middle-class communities
move from urban areas to the suburbs.
The result, there's been a massive drop
in the number of schools
that have a balanced mix
of students who are white
and students who are Black and Latino.
According to a study by
UCLA's Civil Rights Project,
the number of hyper-segregated
public schools
across the country,
those with pretty much no
white students, has tripled.
This re-segregation trend
has been the most dramatic
in the south, but before
you northern liberals
get too high and mighty,
you should know that
segregation is actually worse
in the north.
In fact, the states with
the highest rates of school segregation
are almost all northern left-leaning ones,
like New York, Illinois,
Maryland, New Jersey,
and yes, even California.
So in other words,
forced segregation is
still against the law.
A school can't reject a student
just because of the color of his skin,
but without being aggressively
pushed to integrate,
many communities are
still self-segregating.
Some local activists see
this as natural change,
"It's not a racial thing," they argue,
it's about parents from
diverse backgrounds
wanting the best for their kids,
and that means going to
a neighborhood school
that they don't have to take
a long bus ride to get to,
and where they'll be with other
kids from their community.
It'd be one thing they say,
if a kid was prohibited
from attending a school
just because of the color of his skin,
but those days are long gone.
Now they say it's about choice
and the government
shouldn't be in the business
of making kids shlep across town
just for the sake of diversity.
Diversity advocates argue
that what's going on here
is a major step backwards in
the fight for racial equality.
For one they say, diverse schools
have a positive influence on all students,
both white and minority.
It makes students more
comfortable with diversity,
reduces prejudices and stereotypes,
and better prepares them for
success in the real world.
And studies have repeatedly
shown that segregated schools
have a disproportionately negative impact
for low-income Black and Latino students.
These students are more
likely to attend schools
where the majority of
their classmates are poor,
and these school generally
have fewer resources,
less experienced teachers, and
lower rates of achievement.
And all of that can
have long-term effects,
influencing everything from the chances of
graduating from high
school and going to college
to getting a higher paying job.
So, what do you think?
How diverse is your school?
And how's that affected your education?
Let us know in the comments below,
and if you like this video,
be sure to check out this
other one we did on immigration
and this one gerrymandering.
Thanks for watching.
