South Jersey Is Home To Some Of NJ’s Most Segregated Schools

 New Jersey’s housing and education policy has created some of the most segregated schools in one of the most diverse states in the country, according to state education data and a lawsuit filed last week that seeks to end the practice of mandating students attend their municipal school.

Thousands of children in South Jersey attend schools where more than 90 percent of the students are black or Hispanic. In Cape May, Atlantic and Burlington counties, there are also schools where more than 90 percent of the students are white. This segregation is a direct result of housing inequality, according to The New Jersey Coalition for Diverse and Inclusive Schools, a newly-founded nonprofit that wants students to be able to choose which schools they attend. The group’s lawsuit (read it in full) calls on the state to come up with a desegregation plan.

The case could mean a sea change for South Jersey and particularly Atlantic County, home to some of the state’s most segregated schools. Atlantic County’s Port Republic Elementary School has no Hispanic students and fewer than 1 percent black students – but a 15 minute drive away is Washington Avenue School in Pleasantville, where more than 95 percent of the students are Hispanic or black. Margate’s elementary school has no black students. Less than five miles away on the same barrier island, Atlantic City’s Texas Avenue School has only two white students. (There is an interactive graphic with enrollment data for all Atlantic County schools at the end of this article).

Segregation is not unique to South Jersey or Atlantic County. The state as a whole has one of the most segregated school systems in the country, according to various measures defined by the Civil Rights Project at UCLA in a paper two years ago. New Jersey is among the most diverse states in the country but it has the nation’s sixth most segregated school districts for black students and ninth most segregated for Hispanic students, that paper found.

“We are all diminished by segregation because it erodes social bonds, diminishes trust, and is corrosive to our democracy,” reads the website of the NJ Coalition for Diverse and Inclusive Schools. “In addition to its academic challenges, segregation leaves all children ill‐prepared to function in our increasingly diverse society.” The group’s lawsuit wants to make it unlawful for students to be mandated to attend schools in the municipality where they live. The group also wants an end to mandates that make charter schools prioritize enrollment of students from the district they live in.

See how your Atlantic County school ranks below. For a full list of New Jersey schools that you can sort by county, district and enrollment, click here. (Graphic compiled using Fusion Tables and NJ DoE data for the 2017-18 school year. If you hover over each line, you’ll find each Atlantic County school – we’re having problems with the Y axis display currently).

For a sortable table of South Jersey schools by enrollment, see below: