The benefits of desegregation outweigh the costs so much so that integration of races should be a priority to schools. Physical separation of different races in schools, while still prevalent in the south, is predominantly in the north. Efforts to close the achievement gap by Federal government have been overwhelmingly unsuccessful because they do not focus on the issue of segregation in local areas. Forced busing and other programs to desegregate were faced with an unfortunate amount of resistance during the height of the civil rights movement (Lander). Now, as there is less outright racism, further desegregation would not be met with the same amount of resistance. The opposition to desegregation would argue more about the financial realities of integration rather than insisting races should be educated separately. The abandonment of Boston’s forced busing program from the mid 70s is what makes Boston still so segregated. Forced busing in Boston ultimately failed because of the overemphasis surrounding white resistance in the media and the lack of data collection supporting its function (Theoharis). With persistence and commitment it is likely schools would be a lot more diverse than they are …show more content…
The history behind racial segregation can not be ignored when discussing low performing schools. Public housing helped tocontained low-income minorities to certain neighborhoods while wealthier white families moved to the suburbs. Refusal of loans to black families, in the mid twentieth century, was encouraged by government banks so they could not buy houses in white suburbs, causing black families to have to live in the city and send their children to schools with predominantly student of color. This policy called redlining put African-Americans and other minorities at a disadvantage to their white counterparts because they were forced to live in places they could not get a good education (Rothstein). Racial discrimination from generations before still puts minorities at a disadvantage because of the prejudices held against them and the misconceptions about people of color’s neighborhoods. The slum and ghettos in cities were caused by redlining which excluded African-Americans from integrating with whites. Racial discrimination is responsible for low performing schools in low-income areas. The legacy of redlining has kept schools segregated to this day; one way to effectively close the academic achievement gap is to have students be allowed to attend schools out of their neighborhood (Maples). The legacy of housing segregation can be fixed by changing the where children get educated and spreading diversity in