‘School Choice’ In Hartford May Model Integration, But Also Enhance Disparity

A group of students in a Hartford school classroom. (David DesRoches/WNPR)

A new report out of Harvard University finds that when parents are choosing schools for their kids, more choice is leading to more segregation. And it points to schools in Hartford as a model for integration.

The report, “Do Parents Really Want School Integration?” suggests white, middle and upper-class parents should actively introduce their child to racial and socioeconomically diverse experiences.

“Integration is good for everybody,” said researcher Rick Weissbourd. “It’s good for your own kids. It’s good for other people’s kids. It’s critical for the country as a whole, and it’s critical for democracy.”

Weissbourd said the magnet schools in Hartford effectively model the integration of white, black and Latino students.

“It does appear that it has substantial racial integration — economic integration — in its schools, so those things have been heartening to see,” he said.

Integration was imposed on Hartford after a Connecticut Supreme Court decision in the 1990s created the magnet schools now held up as a model by the report.

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