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Charter Schools And The Legacy Of White Flight

Segregation is reintroduced when charter schools like Lashon Academy serve different demographic groups than neighboring public schools.

“a lot of [mothers] have gotten jobs so they can put their kids in private schools; but those schools are so crowded — just loaded to the gills”

– A Woodland Hills real estate agent, 1978

Photo by Unseen Histories on Unsplash

When the LAUSD reluctantly tried to enforce the laws requiring the desegregation of schools, white, middle-class families fled the District. In 1970 half of the students in the school district were white. In 1978, after busing opponents had exhausted their legal appeals allowing the desegregation program to begin, white students were only 29.8% of the student body. In that year alone, 31,000 of them left the district. Some families moved to neighboring school districts while others enrolled in private schools. This mass exodus occurred even though only about five percent of students in the school system were affected by the mandatory busing program.