U.S. Schools Lapsing Into 'Resegregation,' Orfield Warns

Warning that America is backsliding toward separate and unequal public education, a new study reports that Latino and African-American students are becoming increasingly isolated in inferior schools.

Researchers at Harvard University and at Indiana University Bloomington contend that the historic progress made by blacks toward integration is slowly eroding. More dramatic, they report, is the rising segregation of the nation's soaring Hispanic population.

"One of the great questions of the next generation is whether we ghettoize our Latino population or whether we open the doors of opportunity to them," said Gary Orfield, a professor of education and social policy at Harvard and an author of the report. "If we shut them out--and we can see evidence that we are in the employment, income, and school data--then we are...