According to a new report, Long Island schools are more segregated now than they were 12 years ago.
Even though the non-white student population on Long Island has increased from 29 percent to 45 percent over the past 12 years, more than two-thirds of black and Latino students attend a “minority majority” school district.
Elaine Gross, the president of ERASE Racism, a nonprofit advocacy group that published the report, says this kind of segregation isn’t enforced by the government, but is a product of the community.
“The reason for it, in part, is because of the housing discrimination and segregation that is so embedded here on Long Island.”
Connecticut faces a similar issue. In Hartford, 54 percent of students attend segregated schools, but Gross says that the Connecticut Constitution helps fight segregation in ways the New York Constitution doesn’t.
She says the New York Constitution has a higher burden for what is considered discrimination.
See the interactive racial demographic map of all Long Island public school districts.