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Evidence Suggesting That Public Schools Are More Segregated Today
Thirty years after the civil rights movement, the United States is still residentially segregated. It means that blacks and whites still frequently live in dramatically different communities from one another. The student population in the United States is more varied now than ever. However, racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic lines continue to play a significant role in the high degree of segregation in public schools. According to a report released by the Government Accountability Office in the United States, public schools in the country continue to be highly segregated along racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic lines.
More than one-third of students attended a primarily same-race or ethnicity school during the 2020–21 school year. This is according to a report released by the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) (Carrell et al., 2019). This study is a follow-up to an examination that the GAO conducted in 2016 on racial disparities in K-12 schools. The initial report depicted a somewhat strident picture, according to Jackie Nowicki, the director of K-12 education at the GAO (Dong et al., 2020). However, the findings from the latest report are still troubling. Schools that include a large percentage of children from minority groups with higher poverty rates than white and Asian American pupils are growing (Mele, 2020). These groups include Hispanics, blacks, American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Asian Americans (Carrell et al., 2019). It indicates that a significant proportion of children from minority groups attend not just fundamentally segregated schools but also institutions with fewer resources accessible to them.
The research conducted by the GAO discovered that segregation exists in schools of all different kinds, such as magnet schools, charter schools, and traditional public schools. More than a third of all charter schools, which are schools that get public funding but are managed privately, primarily serve pupils of the same race or ethnicity as themselves. According to the study’s findings, schools that are mainly of the same race or ethnicity can be found close to one another within districts but predominantly between districts that are adjoining one another (Riel et al., 2018). According to the General Accounting Office, a practice known as district secession is one of the reasons there has not been a significant improvement in ending segregation (Dong et al., 2020). It is the process by which schools separate themselves from an existing district and form their new district, frequently citing the need for more local control. Memphis, Tennessee, which had a historic district merger several years ago, was the location of six of the 36 district secessions recognized in the report as having taken place.
The financial instability in 2011 led to the dissolution of Memphis City Schools, which had a predominantly non-white student population. After that, the system combined with its neighbor, Shelby County Schools, which had previously served a more affluent and predominantly white populace (Riel et al., 2018). When communities remove themselves from more prominent school districts to form their own, more compact ones, the inevitable result is an increase in racial and socioeconomic segregation (Riel et al., 2018). In general, new school districts have a higher percentage of pupils who identify as white and Asian American but a lower percentage of children who identify as black or Hispanic. The number of pupils receiving free or reduced lunches, a standard metric of poverty, is much lower in newer school districts.
Steps to Develop Social Institutions that Would Increase Social Interactions Between Races and Ethnicities
A social institution is an interconnected system of social norms and responsibilities that are structured and give behavioral patterns that contribute to achieving the fundamental social demands of society. These patterns of behavior are called social conventions and social roles. They require laws, schools, and an organized economic structure for society to function properly. Sociologists agree that institutions come into being and continue to exist because the members of society feel they should fulfill a specific unmet need (LaFree, 2018). The United States of America has evolved into a racially and ethnically diverse civilization as a direct result of the massive amounts of immigration that have taken place there. The functioning of society is made possible by several social institutions, including government, the economy, education, and families, amongst others. Because the lack of these social institutions would result in the breakdown of society, they serve as the backbone of society.
The purpose of social institutions is to act as a road map, appropriately directing society to operate and upholding the proper standards in all areas of endeavor. It is possible to bring about change in society by introducing new social trends distinct from the traditions by utilizing a social institution such as a family as a vehicle for doing so. The family is the central social organization in a culture, and individuals tend to center their actions and activities around their relationships within the family. The family members decide how society will be characterized, and this social institution can be founded by marriage, blood, or even adoption. Generally, a person’s behavior, mainly how they conduct themselves in public, dramatically affects their family history (Mijs & Roe, 2021). For instance, racists may have learned their harmful behavior from their parents or due to a terrible childhood in which there were no rigorous norms to guide them.
Another possibility is that they were exposed to a hostile environment as a child. Therefore, encouraging intermarriage between people of diverse cultural backgrounds should be done to build an institution that will allow people of varying ethnic backgrounds to engage freely without resorting to racial segregation. More members of underrepresented groups should hold significant positions in political, economic, and religious organizations. If this is done, the minority societies will be given high prestige, resulting in fewer instances of segregation while also driving forward the process of integration.
Effectiveness of Social Institutions in Helping to Erode Prejudice and Bias
It is important to note the role that places of worship, such as churches and mosques, play in helping to reduce instances of prejudice and bigotry. The command to love one another is a central theme throughout the teachings of the Bible. The likelihood of people engaging in racist behavior will decrease once they have understood the Bible’s teachings and put those teachings into practice. The institution of the family significantly impacts the development of who an individual becomes (Mijs & Roe, 2021). The behavior that parents and other adults in a child’s life should model for him or her is something that the youngster can imitate from an early age. Racial prejudices begin during childhood and are especially common among youngsters of the white race in the United States. Therefore, when parents have conversations with their children about race, they should bring up the history of race relations.
Friendships between people of different races are an essential component in reducing prejudice. It is likely because such friendships assist in alleviating the stress and anxiety brought on by interactions between different groups. Having a friend who is a member of a different group can help break down barriers to empathy and care, which can reduce bias. According to research, interacting with members of different racial or social groups, helps to reduce prejudice and encourages the development of friendships that span racial and social lines in family settings (Mijs & Roe, 2021). When parents can help normalize friendships between people of different ethnicities by acting as role models for their children, the institution of the family is useful in reducing prejudice and bias. The study has demonstrated that children’s racial biases are less related to their parents’ explicit messages regarding race than the ethnic composition of their relatives’ social networks.
Political institutions effectively reduce prejudice and bigotry by pushing for diversity while running for office. In international law about human rights, it has been well-established that governments have three tiers of obligations: to respect, protect, and fulfill every right. To show that one respects someone’s right, an individual should avoid doing anything that could get in the way of exercising that right. To ensure that the right is not violated in any way, either by state authorities or by non-state actors, it is necessary to pass laws that establish safeguards against such violations (Mijs & Roe, 2021). Everyone is entitled to get this protection in the same measure. In order to ensure that people can exercise their rights, it is necessary to take proactive measures to establish appropriate institutions and procedures and ensure that sufficient resources are available. The rules and restrictions that are in place inside political parties make them an efficient tool for assisting in the reduction of prejudice and bias.
References
Carrell, S. E., Hoekstra, M., & West, J. E. (2019). The impact of college diversity on behavior toward minorities. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 11(4), 159–182. Web.
Dong, X., Morales, A. J., Jahani, E., Moro, E., Lepri, B., Bozkaya, B., Sarraute, C., Bar-Yam, Y., & Pentland, A. (2020). Segregated interactions in urban and online space. EPJ Data Science, 9(1). Web.
LaFree, G. (2018). Losing legitimacy. Web.
Mele, A. (2020). Does school desegregation promote diverse interactions? An equilibrium model of segregation within schools. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 12(2), 228–257. Web.
Mijs, J. J., & Roe, E. L. (2021). Is America coming apart? Socioeconomic segregation in neighborhoods, schools, workplaces, and social networks, 1970–2020. Sociology Compass, 15(6). Web.
Riel, V., Parcel, T. L., Mickelson, R. A., & Smith, S. S. (2018). Do magnet and charter schools exacerbate or ameliorate inequality?Sociology Compass, 12(9). Web.
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