Housing, Schools, and Incremental Segregative Effects

Racial segregation in housing contributes to racial segregation in schools, and racially identifiable schools contribute to the development and maintenance of segregated neighborhoods. Examination of the reciprocal interplay between housing and school segregation has been spurred by the Supreme Court's decision in the Dayton school case, which calls for determination of how much incremental segregative effect the discriminatory actions of a school board had on the racial distribution of pupils compared to what the distribution would have been if the board had never practised discrimination. In recent hearings in the Milwaukee school case, plaintiffs sought to address this specific question through the testimony of a social scientist. Discriminatory actions with respect to teacher assignment, "intact busing," student transfers, school plant utilization, and attendance zone boundary changes were identified as having pervasive and enduring effects on racial residential segregation in Milwaukee. This case study illustrates that the Supreme Court's effort to construe school cases narrowly should fail, and that policymakers, whether they are concerned with housing, schools, or other domains, should cultivate a broad perspective on the unity of the nation's racial problems.