This policy brief addresses several key provisions in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act that provide policy support and funding to states and localities seeking to deconcentrate poverty and reduce racial isolation in schools. These "choice" programs which include the Magnet Schools Assistance Program and the Voluntary School Choice…

The Administration's "Blueprint For Reform," and FY 2011 budget proposal set forth an education agenda that would make the expansion of charter schools a cornerstone of the reauthorized Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Likewise, HR 4330 would promote charter schools as a central catalyst for education reform. Without clearer…

Today, public schoolchildren are more racially isolated than at any time in the past four decades. And, racially isolated schools are overwhelmingly high-poverty schools: indeed nine out of ten of highly segregated schools serving African-American and Latino students are schools of concentrated poverty. With rare exception, racially isolated,…

The Secretary of Education has expressed strong support for school diversity and reduction of racial isolation in speeches and in the Joint Guidance on Voluntary School Integration, and the Department of Education (DOE) has included a general preference for school integration among its permissible funding preferences. However, this support for…

The November 13, 2009 Conference of the National Coalition on School Diversity brought together more than 300 people from across the nation. This included parents, teachers, school administrators, local and state elected leaders, long time civil rights advocates, community organizers, and government officials. Participants engaged in a…