Released on the eve of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend, a new report from University of Southern California concludes that Pennsylvania schools are more segregated now than a quarter century ago.
The “Is Opportunity Knocking or Slipping Away?” report on racial diversity and segregation in Pennsylvania is a product of the UCLA Civil Rights Project and is the 10th in a series on segregation in Northeast states.
Though heavily weighted by statistics from districts in the Philadelphia metro area—which includes schools in New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland—the report also concludes the Pittsburgh area school districts are highly segregated. However, the bulk of the segregation occurs between districts rather than within them.
The authors classify districts as Diverse, Predominantly White and Predominantly Non-White. They note that while the overall population in the state has diversified with the influx of Asians and Latinos since 1989, public school enrollment is “much Whiter compared to the neighboring states of New York and Delaware.”
“The last decade has, however, been marked by an almost complete retreat amongst policy makers from goals of racial diversity,” wrote co-authors Katherine Reed and Stephen Kotok. “The consequences of this retreat can be seen across the state, and especially in the Philadelphia Metropolitan Area, where almost 45 percent of all public school are now majority minority, compared to 31 percent in 1989-1990, and around 31 percent of schools are intensely segregated, as compared to about 20 percent in1989-1990.”
For Pittsburgh, the report used demographic data from 1989, 1999 and 2010 for the area’s 10 largest districts—which includes Butler and Armstrong County, but not the much closer Penn Hills School District, to conclude that suburban predominantly White districts have stayed that way.
Conversely, the report notes that African-American students are largely confined to the Pittsburgh Public School District, which, using its criteria, has changed from Diverse in 1989 to Predominantly non-White by 2010.
The authors note that historic housing patterns—some intentionally redlined—the large number of distinct school districts, and relative poverty exacerbate the issue. For instance, few Blacks can afford to live in Mt. Lebanon, so it’s school district was 95 percent White 25 years ago, and is 90 percent White now.
They say the magnet school/charter school choice options for getting poor Black kids to schools with better teachers and facilities with more options for AP and honors classes have failed.
As for recommendations, the authors proscribe major changes administered either through state legislative means or through court challenges. Some of these are:
•Interdistrict programs that allow city-suburban student transfer;
•Consolidation programs for smaller districts that make diversity part of the plan from the outset;
•Elect judges at state and federal level who will put diversity first; and
•Have the US Departments of Education, Housing and Urban Development, and Justice combine efforts to create “successful, lasting community and school integration.”
The entire report can be found at civilrightsproject.ucla.edu.
(Send comments to cmorrow@newpittsburghcourier.com.)
Follow @NewPghCourier on Twitter https://twitter.com/NewPghCourier
Like us at https://www.facebook.com/pages/New-Pittsburgh-Courier/143866755628836?ref=hl
Download our mobile app at https://www.appshopper.com/news/new-pittsburgh-courier
About Post Author
