A new study released by the Leroy Collins Institute and conducted by the Civil Rights Project at UCLA finds that Florida’s schools are resegregation at an alarming rate. Here is the study that is cited in the article.
Bear in mind that Florida is the utopia of school choice. Its policies for the past twenty years have been shaped by Jeb Bush, and Betsy DeVos thinks that Florida should be a model for the nation.
“Student enrollment trends in Florida over the past decades show growing racial isolation for Hispanic and black students on some measures, with signs of continuous segregation on others,” the study said.
Some 32 percent of Hispanic students and 35 percent of black students in Florida attend “intensely segregated” schools, defined as have a nonwhite student body of 90 percent or greater, according to the study.
One out of every five schools was intensely segregated in the 2014-2015 academic year, about double the 10.6 percent of the schools that fell into that category in 1994-1995.
The more heavily segregated schools had more poor students. In schools with at least a 50 percent nonwhite school body, low-income students represented 68 percent of the population. Low-income students represented 82.5 percent of the population in the schools with a 90 percent or greater nonwhite student body.
“Florida is the third-largest state in the country and has the most diverse student body in our state’s history, yet one-fifth of our public schools are intensely segregated,” said Carol Weissert, a Florida State University political scientist who leads the Collins Institute. “Similar segregation is evident for low-income students. All Floridians deserve equal access to a quality education, regardless of race or economic standing.”
As the students have become more diverse, the schools have become more segregated:
Since 1980, Hispanic students have increased from 8 percent of Florida students to about 31 percent in 2014, the report showed. White students declined from 68 percent to just under 41 percent, while black students remained about 22 percent during that period.
The study also showed that the number of students defined as low-income has been rising over the last two decades, increasing from 36 percent in 1994-1995 to nearly 59 percent in 2014-2015.
Calling the trend “double segregation,” the report showed typical black students were likely attending schools with 68 percent low-income students, and Hispanic students were in schools with a 65 percent low-income population, “while the typical white student and Asian student are in schools where less than half of the students are poor.”
Florida’s answer to education issues: School choice. Charter schools, tax credits, virtual charter schools.
This is an avoidance of the problem, not a solution.
Good GAWD. A DIVERSE student population is so much better than segregation. What is wrong with this picture? A LOT, A LOT, A LOT!
These are the same people who think that only white folks have a right to free speech.
Florida has a policy that allows students to attend any public school as long as the receiving school is not overcrowded, and parents can provide transportation. Poor families often lack the time and/or transportation to move their children to another building so they tend to attend the school closest to their home. However, students with more means have more options, and many white students choose schools with more white students. In this case “choice” is enhancing segregation. It is shameful that the federal government is supporting and promoting policies that enhance segregation. The feds should be calling states out on these enhanced segregation practices. Instead, they are part of the problem.
“In this case “choice” is enhancing segregation.”
That’s certainly not a bug, it is the desired result.
Sad, but true. MLK is turning over in his grave.
School Choice produces segregation.
It’s origins are in the fight against the Brown decision
YES. Way past time for brutally distinguishing between what should be the goal, and what IS the actual goal.
So, in the end, it boils down to money. If you can afford to transport your child to a better school then you may. And those without the money are just stuck with their neighborhood schools.
Interesting how everything comes back to money. Those that have get what they want, those that don’t, do without.
This is exactly the kind of “educational apartheid” which the current funding produces. As more affluent people move to areas with good (public) schools, they vacate areas with bad (public) schools.
The result is that poor and minority families, are stuck in areas with bad schools! This sets up a “vicious cycle”, where the good schools get more money, and the poor schools get less money.
The solution, is to end school financing by property taxes, and ensure that all schools get equitable funding. And schools in minority and economically depressed areas, need additional funding for nutrition, tutoring, computers, after-school activities, etc.
Do I think any of this will happen? NO way! Politicians send their children to non-public schools. People in areas with good schools, will not vote to send their tax money to areas with low quality schools.
The spiral continues, with no end.
School Choice parallels Make America Great Again – from Make America White Again to Move your White Child to White Schools Again.