Racial disparities and the public education system

Racial disparities regarding student discipline rates
There are racial disparities among those disciplined in school. The Department of Education reports that blacks and Hispanics are more likely to face school discipline like suspension and referral to law enforcement.





According to Wright et al 2014, when factored for prior problems and circumstance, the racial disparity of school suspensions vanishes.

Racial disparities in student behavior may explain much of the disparity between differences in school discipline.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, increased diversity generally correlates with activity that may lead to suspension



There are general racial disparities with recorded violence incidents

There are general racial and gender disparities in physical fights among high school students, in and out of school



Black and Hispanic kids act out more in class. This may contribute to the disparity.

Outside of class, black teens commit crime at a higher rate than whites, including mob crime, robbery, and murder. Withing the education system, blacks and Hispanics are more likely to be bullies.

Spending by student
Public education spending by race is virtually equal among all ethnic groups.



The U.S. public school system is characterized by large funding differences across districts, but what about differences in school spending within these districts?

The Brookings Institute found that:


 * In richer districts, poor and Hispanic students receive more school resources, relative to their non-poor and white peers in the same districts.
 * Districts with more school segregation—whether socioeconomic or racial—tend to spend more on poor and minority students relative to non-poor and white students.
 * Black and Hispanic students receive relatively fewer resources in districts where black or Hispanic family income is more equal to (or even higher than) white family income.

Regardless, continuous spending increases have not corresponded with equal improvement in American educational performance.

This can be clearly seen by how Asians are consistently spent less on than their ethnic counterparts, yet out-preform their peers.

Spending by school
According to Ejdemyr and Schores 2017, within school districts, money is disproportionately given to blacker schools: “we find that poor and minority students on average receive 1 to 2 percent more resources than non-poor and white students in the same district”.

Murray and Rueben 2008 calculated spending per pupil for US schools between the years 1972 and 2002. They found the following: “In 1972, the ratio of nonwhite to white spending was .98; this trend had reversed by 1982, as spending per pupil for nonwhite students was slightly higher than for white students in most states and in the United States as a whole and has been for the past 20 years”

Spending by district
Mosenkis 2016 shows within school districts in Pennsylvania, higher levels of spending correlate to how white the district is