In 11 tweets, this Harvard historian explains how the government allowed America to become resegregated

By Fusion Staff  |  May 18, 2016 | 12:56pm
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Late Tuesday, Clint Smith, a Ph.D candidate at Harvard and New Yorker contributor, offered his thoughts on Twitter about the state of segregation in America on the anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court decision that desegregated America’s public schools.

In sum: Smith believes that segregation in schools has reasserted itself in 2016, and the main reason can be traced back to decisions taken (and not taken) by the federal government.

Here’s Smith:

And here is the link to that report, which explains how unequal property tax bases have the effect of creating separate and unequal school districts.

“You’ve got highly segregated rich and poor towns,” NPR quoted Bruce Baker of Rutgers University, who studies how states pay for their public schools. “[They] raise vastly different amounts of local revenue based on their local bases, and [Illinois] really doesn’t put much effort into counterbalancing that.”

Rob covers business, economics and the environment for Fusion. He previously worked at Business Insider. He grew up in Chicago.

 
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