American Law and Economics Review Advance Access originally published online on July 28, 2006
American Law and Economics Review 2006 8(2):347-389; doi:10.1093/aler/ahl002
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Federal Oversight, Local Control, and the Specter of "Resegregation" in Southern Schools
Duke University and NBER
Duke University
Send correspondence to: Charles T. Clotfelter, Box 90245 Duke University, Durham, NC 27708; E-mail: charles.clotfelter{at}duke.edu.
Analyzing data for the 100 largest districts in the South and Border states, we ask whether there is evidence of "resegregation" of school districts and whether levels of segregation can be linked to judicial decisions. We distinguish segregation measures based on racial isolation from those based on racial imbalance. Only one measure of racial isolation suggests that districts in these regions experienced resegregation between 1994 and 2004, and changes in this measure appear to be driven largely by the rising nonwhite percentage in the student population rather than by district policies. Although we find no time trend in racial imbalance over this period, we find that variations in racial imbalance across districts are nonetheless associated with judicial declarations of unitary status, suggesting that segregation in schools might have declined had it not been for the actions of federal courts.