In which Dems need not pat ourselves on the back just yet.

[unusualmusic_lj_archive]

Separate and Unequal Public Schools: "Liberal" Blue States Have Worse Records Than "Dixie"

Separate and Unequal Schools: Blue States Outperform Dixie
Many of the nation's public schools are separate and unequal. Typically, the country's school populations are racially homogeneous, and vast differences in funding exist across jurisdictions. On average, schools with relatively poorer student populations receive less public funding. Also, schools with higher concentrations of students of color tend to have poorer student bodies. Together, these two realities produce school systems in which the average student of color attends racially isolated and poorly funded schools, while white students attend racially isolated, yet better funded schools.

Educational statistics repeatedly confirm that Democratic (or "blue states") are among the very worst offenders with respect to racial isolation and funding inequity. The Civil Rights Project at UCLA (formerly at Harvard University) and the Federal Education Budget Project of the New America Foundation conduct research and compile data related to education policy. Reports prepared by these two institutions reveal that "liberal" blue states have worse records than Dixie with respect to educational equality.

Racial Isolation
The Civil Rights Project is a leading national authority on race-related education research. A 2006 publication released by the Civil Rights Project analyzes the rate of racial segregation in public schools for each state. The report presents data regarding several categories of segregation (e.g., black, Latino, Asian-American) and for varying degrees of isolation (e.g., majority-minority, 90-100% minority). Public schools in liberal Democratic states consistently rank among the most racially isolated in the nation.MORE

Comments

[vee-ecks.livejournal.com]

The whole thing boils down to property taxes, obviously. Americans don't think beyond their own districts, typically - something deep needs to change, there, for any real progress to ever happen. Additionally, California at least is still staggering under the effects of Proposition 13. Liberals aren't totally averse to tax-slashing schemes with lots of unintended consequences like that.

I'm sure there are piles of other causes I can't even guess at, too.