WASHINGTON -- Private religious schools are more racially segregated than public schools, according to the first analysis of federal data on private school enrollment.
Harvard University's Civil Rights Project report claims church schools are not intentionally discriminating against minority students. Instead, the report contends religious schools -- particularly those operated by Roman Catholics -- have failed to overcome patterns of residential segregation, according to The New York Times.
The report, released June 27, found that in public schools, 34 percent of blacks attend schools considered to be heavily segregated. Fewer than 10 percent of students in heavily segregated schools are white. But 48 percent of black children in Catholic schools and 44 percent in other church schools, attend schools that are as strictly segregated, according to the report.
Black children attended public schools with student bodies that were 14 percent white, according to the report. In the private, religious schools blacks attended, whites accounted for 20 percent of the student body.
Religious schools make up 80 percent of all private schools. Secular private schools were less segregated than public schools, according to the report.
