Segregation in Schools

Introduction

The United States boasts of a comprehensive educational system, articulating and diversified, which provides education for integral human development of its population. The system is recognized nationally and internationally for its quality and is the cornerstone of cultural, scientific, technological, economic and social development of the nation. However, there is one issue, which stands out with respect to public schools in the US. This issue is the segregation of some of the public schools.

Discussion

General Objectives of the Education Policy

The general objectives are to encourage improvements in the governance of the Ministry of Education supporting the control of its processes, the alignment of their organizational structures and implementation of innovative models of leadership that contribute to improved educational quality and public perceptions of services provided by the Secretariat. The school is an interactive social environment; attitudes need to seek the formation of citizens with values, to respect people and their differences (Arrighi, 154).

Segregation in the United States

Any group of people can be segregated, and these patterns are apparent in the academic institutions as well. Segregation on the basis of income defines the broad social areas in cities, with neighborhoods divided between low, middle, and higher incomes. Segregation on the basis of life cycle considers the tendency of neighborhoods to be dominated by people at certain stages of their lives, from young adult singles to families with children, to empty nesters and elderly enclaves (Foster, 52). Social scientists are more concerned with this sort of segregation because it seems to be less voluntary than the other forms, indicates profound social tensions, or stems from discrimination.

The practice of separating people on the basis of their race or ethnicity is obsolete in principle. That is, segregation is illegal, but not so with de facto segregation. De jure segregation, or segregation by law, occurred when local, state, or national laws required segregation. All such laws were abolished in the United States by the mid-1960s. De facto segregation, on the other hand, is segregation that occurs as a matter of fact without imposition of law. Segregation, both de jure and de facto, has generated heated debate in the United States, resulting in widespread dissent and demands for reform. A customary example is a public school comprised of a majority of students who are of a racial minority, resulting in unintended school segregation. With the demise of de jure segregation, attention has shifted to de facto. By definition, de facto refers to segregation by chance or circumstance (Bell, 54).

Created by social and economic patterns and other determinates, this type of segregation is not a conscious choice. It ensues most often due to residential housing patterns and individual choices. For instance, for a variety of reasons, the phenomenon of White flight from the cities to the suburbs effectively produced newly segregated public schools through a concentration of neighborhoods with predominantly one race. Moreover, users of facilities, such as churches and libraries, tend to be neighborhood residents and thus reflect the racial and ethnic ...