For those who thought segregation was a problem of the past, a new report from the Boston Globe on the racial make up of Boston Public Schools is a rude awakening. However, for many who have kids in the school system, it’s a pattern they’ve been watching for years. The report found that nearly 60 percent of the city’s schools are now intensely segregated, meaning they are comprised of at least 90 percent students of color. Two decades ago, 42 percent of schools crossed that unfortunate threshold. It’s a problem the busing that began in the 1970s was supposed to solve, but over the years, the city has been slowly moving back toward a system that gives preference to students within a school’s neighborhood.
Jim Braude was joined by Tanisha Sullivan, president of the Boston branch of the NAACP, Jessica Tang, the head of the Boston Teacher’s Union, and Paul Reville, former Massachusetts Education Secretary, now a professor at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education to discuss.
