SoCal Has State’s Most Segregated Large School Districts

I read this recent Daily News article recently on a UCLA study that found California Latino students are among the most segregated in the US. While this is dismaying news, I was so gratified to learn that the report, along with one of the Board members for Los Angeles Unified School District, confirms what I have been saying for years about the core reason for segregated schools: housing discrimination.

Here’s an excerpt from the article:

The most segregated large school districts in the state are in the Los Angeles-Inland Empire region, while the most integrated are in the Sacramento and Fresno areas. The study found that housing segregation was a primary cause of school segregation and recommended that any long-term policy to foster integration ‘must determine how to enforce fair housing and affordable housing policies more effectively.’

And a few paragraphs later:

The report, if it gets the attention it deserves, may stand out as one of the landmark studies that presents data that cannot be ignored, said Los Angeles Unified School District Board Member Steve Zimmer. It’s important because it shows the compounding effects of both racial and economic isolation and segregation, he said.

“This is not accidental, this is a direct result of institutionally racist housing and economic systems and we can’t pretend that schools don’t exist within these systems,” Zimmer said. “If we are not intentional about addressing the circumstances of children who are living out the consequences…we are basically placing them at severe risk of being victims of the system that they had no role whatsoever in creating,” Zimmer said.

The article is pretty eye opening. Have you seen or experienced this in your local schools?

You can read more here:

http://www.dailynews.com/social-affairs/20140522/californias-latino-students-among-the-most-segregated-in-the-country-says-ucla-report