North Carolina public school systems are facing a resurgence in economic segregation, a Duke University study found. Racial segregation within schools, however, has declined.

Wake County was an exception to the rise in economic segregation because of a policy created to end the imbalance 15 years ago, with mandatory busing to ensure diversity. The rule was to have no more than 40 percent of the students enrolled in the National School Lunch Program, according to Charles Clotfelter, a Duke economic, public policy and law professor. The NSLP provides students with nutritionally balanced, low-cost or free lunch each school day. 

Mecklenburg, Vance, Hyde, Bertie and Forsyth counties have the highest rates of economic imbalance, Clotfelter said. He claims that these counties could look to Wake County as an example. But for some, economic segregation isn’t a problem that needs to be severely addressed.

“Everybody is concerned about it, just at different degrees,” Clotfelter said.  

In an interview with Indy Week, Clotfelter said he thinks economic segregation should be a concern because schools with high percentages of low-income students have a harder time recruiting and retaining good teachers. Low-income students typically underperform compared to their affluent peers, but quality teachers can help offset this trend.

Wake County is an unusual county because the Board of Education had an explicit policy about economic balance, Clotfelter said.

In a 5-4 vote, policy ended in 2010 after a Republican majority overruled the policy of busing students. The practice was still in effect for the 2010-11 school year, the last year Clotfelter collected his research data. Wake County may go back toward the diversity model now that Democrats regained control of the Board of Education.

Mecklenburg County had a similar busing policy to Wake County, but it was removed in 2002, leading to more neighborhood-centric schools. 

Clotfelter said he thinks the reason Wake County concentrated on balancing the schools both economically and racially was to keep downtown neighborhoods attractive, which has paid off.

In 2011, Businessweek ranked Raleigh — the biggest city in Wake County — as one of “America’s 50 Best Cities,” using public education as a criterion. 

In an interview with WUNC, Clotfelter said state counties should consolidate districts to improve diversity in their classrooms, a solution that would especially benefit Halifax County, located in northeastern North Carolina, and Davidson County, located south of the Triad. Vance County, north of Wake County, is the most economically segregated county in the state.  

“Both of them have two city districts plus the county district, and there are marked differences in racial composition among those,” Clotfelter told WUNC.

Creating a more balanced school in terms of race is not allowed because of 1954 Supreme Court ruling Brown v. Board of Education, Clotfelter said. But school systems can diversify themselves based on income.

Nationwide economic segregation is on the rise in neighborhoods as well. According to the Pew Research Center, 28 percent of lower income households in 2010 were located in a majority lower income census district, up from 23 percent in 1980. Eighteen percent of upper income households were located in a majority upper income census district, compared to 9 percent in 1980.  

But things may not change in North Carolina. Gov. Pat McCrory named Tony Tata, former Wake County School Superintendent, as the secretary of transportation. Under Tata’s tumultuous 20-month tenure on the board, he outlined a choice-based student assignment plan that would have “protracted dysfunction in the system’s busing of more than 70,000 students,” according to The News & Observer. 

As Clotfelter’s research indicates, North Carolina schools and politicians have work to do before economic disparities improve.

“Although state-enforced school segregation is now a distant memory, significant disparities remain between schools, both racial and economic,” Clotfelter stated in a press release. “These disparities are among the most pressing civil rights issues of our time.”