Prior studies have shown that education should broaden an individual's perspective and help diminish racist attitudes. New research indicates that just the opposite may be true: that increased education of whites, in particular, may not only have little effect on eliminating prejudice, but it may also be one
reason behind the rise of racial segregation in U.S. schools. According to university sociologists,
higher-educated whites, regardless of their income,are more likely than less-educated whites to judge a
school's quality and base their school choice on its racial composition.
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Black-white racial segregation has been on the rise in primary and secondary schools over the past decade. While whites, particularly those who are highly educated, may express an interest in having their children attend integrated schools, in reality, they seek out schools that are racially segregated. In the first study to examine the relationship of parents' education level to school choice and racial
segregation, researchers found on average the greater the education of white parents, the more likely they will remove their children from public schools as the percentage of black students increases.
"What we believed from prior studies is that education has a significantly positive impact on racial
attitudes," said Michael Emerson, a Rice University sociologist and co-author of a study titled "School
Choice and Racial Segregation in U.S. Schools: The Role of Parents' Education."
"What we found when studying behaviors, however, is that people acquiring more education is not a means of combating segregation. Education may broaden an individual's world, but it also leads to greater negative sensitivity toward blacks' presence in public schools."
Emerson and research colleague David Sikkink, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of
Notre Dame, know that income and other factors come into play in terms of school choice, but their study shows that even after controlling for these variables, education has an unintended effect. Whites with more education place a greater emphasis on race when choosing a school for their children, while
higher-educated African-Americans do not consider race.
"I do believe that white people are being sincere when they claim that racial inequality is not a good thing and that they'd like to see it eliminated," said Emerson, the Allyn and Gladys Cline Professor of
Sociology at Rice.
"However, they are caught in a social system in which their liberal attitudes about race aren't reflected in their behavior."
According to the researchers, part of this behavior is explained by the place and meaning of schooling for children of more-educated white parents. Degrees in education, for example, become status markers, regardless of income. Parents seek quality education for their children to ensure that they are not hindered from achieving the "good life." As earlier studies indicate, education is a key to social
mobility and one of the most important forms of cultural capital.
In a study to be published in Ethnic and Racial Studies, Emerson and Sikkink cite earlier work on
school choice in Philadelphia where race was found to be a factor in whites' decisions about the quality of a school. Unlike blacks who judged schools on the basis of such outcomes as their graduation rates and students' test scores, whites initially eliminated any schools with a majority of black students before considering factors such as schools' graduation rates.
When they analyzed a national data set of whites and non-Hispanic blacks to see if the level of their
education would have an impact on their school choice, Emerson and Sikkink found a similar pattern.
"Whites with higher levels of education still made school choices based on race, while blacks did not,"
said Emerson.
The researchers found that regardless of income, more-educated whites in their data set also lived in
"whiter" neighborhoods than less-educated whites. Higher-income African-Americans also lived in whiter, but more racially mixed, neighborhoods than lower-income blacks.
"The more income African-Americans made, the more likely their children attended more racially mixed
schools than did African-American children of less-educated, lower-income parents," said Emerson.
According to Emerson, this is because more highly educated or higher-income African-Americans often live in areas with racially mixed local public schools, close to high concentrations of whites that have
undergone desegregation plans.
"African-American children of less-educated, lower-income parents attend largely black schools."
When separating income from their analysis, however, the researchers concluded that unlike whites,
African-American parents' higher-education levels don't affect their school choice.
In studying the effects of education on school choice and racial segregation, Emerson and Sikkink used data from the 1996 National Household Education Survey, a national telephone survey conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics. This data set allowed them to analyze public and private school choice as well as information on church attendance. In their analysis they used a sample of white and non-Hispanic black families with children in grades 6 though 12 from the Parent and Family Involvement in Education and Civic Involvement data file. Zip-code-level census data was merged with the household-level data to include information on neighborhood characteristics.
The researchers did simultaneous equation regression analysis to predict parents' decisions to move their child or children out of the local public school and the resulting racial makeup of the school they chose.
In addition to the findings regarding the impact of parents' education level and income on school choice,
the study found that parents who are older and attend church more frequently look upon school choice more favorably. Those living in the West more than any other region of the country are less likely to take advantage of school choice programs, while urban residents are more likely to use school choice
programs. Not surprisingly, residents living in areas with higher levels of home ownership, which probably reflects school quality, were found to be less likely to remove their children from the local public school.
"Our study arrived at a very sad and profound conclusion," said Emerson.
"More formal education is not the answer to racial segregation in this country. Without a structure of
laws requiring desegregation, it appears that segregation will continue to breed segregation."
An expert on race and ethnic relations and religion, Emerson is the co-author of several books, including "American Evangelicalism: Embattled and Thriving," "Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America," "United by Faith: A Response to the Problem of Race in America," "Against All Odds: The Struggle for Racial Integration in Religious Organizations" and his newest book,
"People of the Dream: Multiracial Congregations in the United States."
