Would George Floyd be alive today had he and Derek Chauvin grown up together and attended the same schools?
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the public middle and high schools that Chauvin attended were 94 percent white and less than 2 percent Black at the time.
Today, nearly one-fifth of public schools have almost no children of color, while another one-fifth have almost no white children.
This segregation persists despite mountains of evidence demonstrating that students who attend school in integrated settings harbor fewer prejudices and have less discriminatory attitudes.
Students in diverse classrooms are less likely to drop out and more likely to enroll in college than students in high-poverty, racially segregated schools — and these benefits accrue to all students, regardless of race or ethnicity.
