America’s public schools are growing more segregated by race and social class as poor, black and Hispanic children are becoming increasingly isolated from their white, affluent peers, according to new findings by the US government.
The data was released by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) on Tuesday, 62 years after the US Supreme Court ruled that segregated schools are “inherently unequal” and therefore unconstitutional.
The report by the GAO, the US Congress’ watchdog agency, echoes what advocates for low-income and minority students have said for years.
The GAO investigators found that from the 2000-2001 to the 2013-2014 school year, the percentage of all schools with so-called racial or socio-economic isolation grew from 9 percent to 16 percent.
Researchers define “isolated schools” as those in which 75 percent or more of students are of the same race or class.
Federal investigators found that such schools offered…