Tuesday, September 11, 2018

Mapping Segregation in American Schools

Schools in the southern states of America are as segregated now as they were 50 years ago. However it isn't just the southern states where schools are segregated along racial lines. Because of the residential segregation that exists in nearly every town and city the majority of black children in the USA end up attending schools where the majority of students are black and white children attend schools where the majority of students are white.

Back in 2015 the Tampa Bay Times visualized the segregation that exists in Pinellas County schools. In Why Pinellas County is the Worst Place to be Black and Attend Public School the newspaper explores the segregation in the county's schools and the result that this has had on the education of the county's black students.

As you progress through the Tampa Bay Times story map you are shown how the county's schools have become more segregated since Pinellas abandoned integration. In Failure Factories the newspaper goes on to show how as the schools became more segregated the district then began to fund the schools differently. In some years the schools with the highest percentage of black students got less money per student than other schools. The result is that black students in the county are more likely to receive a worse education than white students.




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