Report finds segregation in education on the rise

A report Tuesday by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office found deepening segregation of black and Hispanic students at high-poverty K-12 public schools.

"While much has changed in public education in the decades following this landmark decision and subsequent legislative action, research has shown that some of the most vexing issues affecting children and their access to educational excellence and opportunity today are inextricably linked to race and poverty," the report said.

In a separate paper, the Civil Rights Project at UCLA said New York and Illinois have been "at or very near the top of the list" of states where African-American and Latino students have been most severely segregated.

The GAO report found that in the 2013-2014 school year, 16 percent of the nation's public schools had high concentrations of poor and black or Hispanic students, up from 9 percent at the start of the millennium.

In science, they had less biology, chemistry and physics courses than their more affluent counterparts with fewer minority students.

Nancy Zirkin, executive vice president and director of policy at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights said, "We must focus on fixing resource disparities that have plagued students of color and low-income students for generations."