Finishing Last: Girls of Color and School Sports Opportunities: Our new study with the National Women’s Law Center (released today!) links school segregation with a lack of high school sports opportunities for girls by comparing opportunities available in 90%+ white schools vs 90%+ minority schools. The report shows that at both the state and national level, heavily minority schools typically provide far fewer sports opportunities for girls (defined as spots on teams) compared to heavily white schools, potentially raising both Title IX and Title VI concerns. Read the report here.
Recent advocacy letters: We submitted comments to the Senate Finance Committee on two legislative proposals by the Department of Treasury that would exacerbate segregation in the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program, and we complained to the Department of Education about their latest “Investing in Innovation” proposed competitive grant standards that continue to ignore school integration as an element of educational reform and “innovation,” in spite of Congressional authorizing language that would support such standards.Progress in Connecticut: The latest UCLA Civil Rights Project report on school segregation, Connecticut School Integration: Moving Forward as the Northeast Retreats, finds that school integration is increasing in Connecticut, contrary to the resegregation trend that the CRP has documented in nine other East Coast states. The report credits the interdistrict remedies adopted in response to the 1996 Sheff v. O’Neill ruling, but criticizes the state’s recent moratorium on new magnet schools outside the Hartford region and the state’s continued funding of highly segregated charter schools. (PRRAC is actively involved in Connecticut as a supporter of the “Sheff Movement” parent and community coalition.)
Upcoming Events
NEXT WEEK — “Why Classroom Diversity Matters in Early Education:” a Capitol Hill Briefing sponsored by PRRAC and the Century Foundation, Wednesday, April 29, 2015 at 2:00 PM, in the Rayburn House Office Building. Featuring Jeanne Reid, research scientist, National Center for Children and Families at Teachers College, Columbia University, with opening remarks from Congressman Robert C. “Bobby” Scott. Register here.
