According to a new report from the Department of Education, Black students face harsher discipline in schools, as well as a variety of other serious disparities.

Black students represented 18 percent of students in the schools sampled, yet they accounted for 35 percent of those suspended once, 46 percent of those suspended more than once, and 39 percent of those expelled. Overall, Black students are three and a half times more likely to be suspended or expelled.

And that’s not all. According to the study, 70 percent of students arrested or referred to the police while in school are Hispanic or Black; and Hispanic and Black students are disproportionately subject to seclusion or restraints. And schools with predominantly Black or Hispanic students are more likely to have inexperienced and/or underpaid teachers.

In other words, our education system is anything but equal.

From the New York Times:

“‘Education is the civil rights of our generation,’ said Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, in a telephone briefing with reporters on Monday. ‘The undeniable truth is that the everyday education experience for too many students of color violates the principle of equity at the heart of the American promise.’

The department began gathering data on civil rights and education in 1968, but the project was suspended by the Bush administration in 2006. It has been reinstated and expanded to examine a broader range of information, including, for the first time, referrals to law enforcement, an area of increasing concern to civil rights advocates who see the emergence of a school-to-prison pipeline for a growing number of students of color.”

Read the rest of this article at NYTimes.com

Are our young people receiving a quality education in America?

What accounts for the incredible disparities listed in this article?

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