Diversity in our schools doesn't just happen

Six decades after Brown v. Board of Educationabolished school segregation, too many of our schools remain separate and unequal. In recent decades progress on integration has stalled and reversed, as a study conducted by the Civil Rights Project at University of California, Los Angeles confirmed. By some measures, our nation’s public schools are less integrated today than they were in 1968.

This trend away from integration is especially alarming in New York City, which is still home to one of the most segregated school systems in the country. Even as Mayor Bill de Blasio has moved aggressively to address the “Tale of Two Cities” he cited in his 2013 campaign, the wealth and education gap can never meaningfully narrow without lessening the segregation of our public schools.

Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña has said that diversity is one of her top three priorities. However, when asked about how to address the issue at a February 2016 Education Town Hall meeting, the Chancellor replied, “I want to see diversity in schools organically. I don't want to see mandates.”

I have the greatest respect for Chancellor Fariña. But recent history shows that neither inequality nor segregation will reduce by itself. Over the past two decades, the percentage of black and Latino students in New York City attending highly segregated schools has actually increased, with 85 percent of black students in 2011 attending schools with population that is at least 90 percent minority students, up from 78 percent in 1990.

Integration will only happen when we intentionally take action to put policies in place to make it happen. In my district on the Upper West Side of Manhattan – part  of School District 3 – we have an opportunity to choose integration. In part as a result of racial inequality, some schools are overcrowded while others are under-enrolled, necessitating a school rezoning for the coming school year. This rezoning leaves us with a choice to make. It can be done in a way that narrowly addresses overcrowding while perpetuating segregation, or it can be a positive step towards integration.

Two schools in particular highlight the existing disparities:

This data tells a story all too common across New York. On West 70th Street, P.S. 199 is high achieving and chronically overcrowded, with a lengthy wait list every year that provokes much anxiety among parents. Not ten blocks away, on West 61st Street, P.S. 191 may as well be in another world. It is chronically under-enrolled and has historically underachieved. While the school’s new principal has made great strides – working  to increase attendance and test scores with a new curriculum and quickly correcting the school’s erroneous designation as a “persistently dangerous school” – the stark inequality between the two schools remains.

The Department of Education has proposed three scenarios with zoning line changes attempting to address this inequality. Each of these proposals vary on the details but they share one essential feature: under each plan, the end result would be roughly 20 percent free and reduced lunch student populations at both P.S. 199 and P.S. 191 – erasing  a disparity that is decades in the making. In response, the local Community Education Council released a letter calling for a comprehensive zoning plan that truly addresses diversity and overcrowding. I applaud them for their vision.

Not surprisingly, the legacy of inequality makes addressing segregation politically fraught, and the Department of Education’s proposals have been met with stiff resistance. Regardless of recent progress in raising academic achievement at P.S. 191, some of those who would be rezoned from P.S. 199 are concerned about sending their children there. It would be tempting to address these concerns by narrowing the scope of the rezoning to change as little as possible. We have heard many express fears their communities will be split up and broken apart.

But segregation already divides our neighborhood and limits student achievement. We need to think of this rezoning as an opportunity to broaden and strengthen our entire community, creating new ties with one another and, most importantly, improving the education of all of our children.

The benefits of integration are shared by all. Study after study finds that integrated schools are optimal for children of all economic and racial backgrounds, helping low-achieving students catch up even as everyone gets ahead. A pair of twenty-year studies conducted by the Century Foundationconcluded that all students in more diverse schools benefit. They become better critical thinkers, perform better on tests and fare better in college.

In order to accomplish this broader goal, we must integrate the schools and we must make all families feel welcome and confident in their newly zoned schools. The Department of Education must provide a detailed and actionable plan for how it will support P.S. 191 and all under-enrolled schools in District 3.

Norman Rockwell, an Upper West Sider himself, referred to school segregation as “The Problem We All Live With.” The solution must also be something we all have a stake in. Not only to help those most disadvantaged by present inequalities but also because segregation holds back all of our children.

All students deserve and must have a safe and encouraging environment in which to learn and grow. Diversity should be a part of that environment. Now is the time to make it a reality.

Helen Rosenthal is a New York City Councilmember representing the Upper West Side, District 6. She is chair of the Committee on Contracts and a member of the Education Committee.