After all the years I attended schools in America or worked in a school in America, I have seen how the composition of the student body has changed. Schools are becoming more mixed and in some cases more segregated. As someone who grew up in New York, this update will focus on how NYC has handled changing demographics in schools.

As a student, the majority of my classmates were White and it wasn't until 2005 that I attended a school that was more racially diverse. Kucsera, who worked for the Civial RIghts Project at UCLA, states "At the state level, the proportion of Latino and Asian students in New York has nearly doubled from 1989 to 2010. " In terms of New York, the majority of Black, Hispanic, Asian, and other minorities tend to settle in one of the 5 boroughs which leads to 2 important questions "how is NYC able to handle all these children? And how will it provide for the educational needs of these students?"

As for the first question, there are around 1,700 public schools in NYC alongside private schools or even charter schools to choose from. Population wise, this accounts for the number of students city-wide. According to an article written by Alex Zimmerman however, in recent years, many renewal schools have closed down or merged with other schools. Additionally, a large number of schools have provided classes to teach students who are immigrants english and incorporate them into mainstream classes, but with the number of students increasing each year, do schools have the financial support needed?

According to Kucsera "In terms of poverty concentration, statewide patterns indicate that as a school becomes heavily minority, the school also becomes more low-income." This was something I also experienced in my first year working with SAGA in a Bronx renewal school. The students were majority African-American or mixed with different Hispanic backgrounds. At the end of the year, the school did not have the money to maintain the program despite seeing the improvement in student's math skills. In fact, the school merged with another school in order to remain open. In a Washington Post article by Valeria Strauss, "Since 2010, the amount of per-pupil funding in New York City schools has been cut four times, even as operating costs have continued to increase."

The only conclusion that can be arrived at is that as African-American, Hispanic, and other minority race students come into a public school system, they will have a measurable lower level of education when compared to schools with higher numbers of white students. According to a New York Times Article "Elementary and secondary schools with large numbers of black and Hispanic students are less likely to have experienced teachers, advanced courses, high-quality instructional materials and adequate facilities" (Askenas, Park, and Pearce) and this is a situation that will most likely impact any student's goal for a college education even with affirmative action.

Sources: https://civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/research/k-12-education/integration-and-diversity/ny-norflet-report-placeholder/Kucsera-New-York-Extreme-Segregation-2014.pdf

https://chalkbeat.org/posts/ny/2018/12/14/renewal-school-closures/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2018/02/09/this-is-what-inadequate-funding-at-a-public-school-looks-and-feels-like-as-told-by-an-entire-faculty/

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/08/24/us/affirmative-action.html