It has been more than six decades since school segregation in the United States has been prohibited by the Supreme Court. However, a report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) showed that 16 percent of all K-12 public schools had high percentages of poor and black or Hispanic students in school year 2013-2014. This is an increase from the nine percent recorded from school year 2000-2001.
ABC News reported that these schools often had less math, science and prep classes. There were also reportedly disproportionally higher rates of students who did not graduate from ninth grade, suspended or excelled from school.
Two views of rising American school #segregation, or lack thereof: https://t.co/IKvDaYkG8x https://t.co/YandhJhVsl pic.twitter.com/gbZPMpRGdY
— Andrew Ujifusa (@AndrewUjifusa) May 18, 2016
Segregation Worse For Latinos
"Segregation in public K-12 schools isn't getting better. It's getting worse, and getting worse quickly," said Rep. Bobby Scott of Virginia. Scott is the House education committee's leading Democrat and one of the lawmakers who requested the study. He called the report "a national call to action."
The GAO report also showed that 61% of American schools that had high concentrations of poor students were also racially segregated. This translated to at least 75 percent black or Latino students on campus, the Los Angeles Times said. Moreover, Latino students were said to be often segregated in three forms, namely race, income and language.
Education And Justice Departments Called On To Help End Segregation
According to US News, the GAO recommended that the United States Education Department employ a more routine approach in its analysis of civil rights data. This will enable the determination of disparities among types and groups of schools. The Justice Department was also called on to track data on federal school desegregation cases.
The GAO report was made due to the request of representatives from the Democratic Party more than two years ago. Its release coincided with the 62nd anniversary of the outlawing of segregation in schools in Brown vs. Board of Education.
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