© (Phil Boorman/Getty Images) More than a third of white students attend schools that are almost 100 percent white, according to a recent report.

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Sixty-four years after the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education ruling, which declared segregated public schools unconstitutional, educational institutions in the United States are still very divided by race, with over one-third of Black and Latino students attending schools that are over 90 percent non-white. And more than a third of white students attend schools that are almost 100 percent white, according to a recent report.



By multiple measures, public schools are even more segregated today than they were in the 1970s, according to the findings published by The Century Foundation. And current policy could be making the problem worse. Some education advocates point to Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos' decision to cancel an Obama administration program designed to help desegregate schools as an example of a step backward. Known as Opening Doors, Expanding Opportunity, the program offered $12 million in grants issued to school districts seeking to develop local strategies to increase diversity in schools. DeVos cut the program because it was focused on planning instead of "implementation," The Washington Post reported.

Beyond DeVos' position on that program, advocates say her support for school choice is problematic when it comes to desegregation. DeVos argues free market forces should be trusted to help level the educational playing field, by developing charter schools and providing families with vouchers to fund private schooling, as higher-quality alternatives to neighborhood and district schools.

But, these programs end up impeding desegregation, says Raechele Pope, a cultural competence expert at University at Buffalo.

Given the option to transfer to more resourceful schools, parents usually decide to avoid lower-income, minority-dominant neighborhoods. Consequently, school choice facilitates the exclusion of children of color, who end up in under-resourced and understaffed schools, says Pope.

"When it's about school choice, parents with the financial means will ensure their kids go to the better schools," Pope says. "Parents with less voice don't have the same privilege. Where's the power in that?"

This division leads to resource disparities between public schools, where schools with more minority students are often the underdogs. A recent study conducted by social justice organization Journey for Justice in predominantly black and Latino school districts found gaps between what schools say they offer and what they actually offer in terms of coursework, often due to a lack of staff or funding. With that, resource gaps between Black and Latino-majority schools and schools that are majority-white become "embedded in state and local funding formulas."

Jitu Brown, national director of Journey for Justice, says in schools across the country, there's a difference between how white children are seen and treated and how children of color are seen and treated. And in terms of both rigor and variety, minority schools are missing the mark.

"We've privatized schools, we've opened charter schools and we've got online schools instead of ensuring all children have high-quality schools within walking distance," Brown says.

At the elementary and middle school levels, researchers found more course offerings, particularly in the arts, were available at schools serving whiter, more affluent students. In every pairing of minority-versus-white high schools, white-majority schools offered more variety, both in academic courses and in the arts, than black or Latino-majority schools. And in nearly every comparison, access to art, music, dance and drama significantly varied between majority-white schools and those serving students of color.

Thomas Dee, director of the Stanford University Center for Education Policy Analysis, says designing an environment where every student, no matter their background, is allowed to be their "best self" is pivotal for education. With vouchers, charter schools and the school choice movement revolutionizing the educational landscape, Dee says he believes schools may lose sight of what's important: equal opportunity for all.

"There is a fundamental tradeoff as we guide schools to become more nimble organizations that provide the best opportunities for our kids," Dee says. "Schools at their best are agents for promoting equity, and if they don't do that, it's a problem."

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