Segregation in NYC public schools

NEW YORK (FOX 5 NEWS) - New York is among the most ethnically diverse cities in the world. So why are so many of the public schools so segregated? That was the focus of a recent study and researchers found the answer doesn't always have to do with housing patterns.

The study from researchers at the New School analyzing neighborhood schools across the 5 boroughs. One example of the ethnic imbalance is P.S. 191 on the Upper West Side. Here statistics show pupils are 80 percent black and Latino, yet the proportion of black and Latino people living in this zone is just 21 percent.

Clara Hemphill helped author the report for the New School's Center for New York City Affairs. It found that as some neighborhoods are gentrified more affluent people moving in just don't want to send their kids to local schools. So those kids end up in charter schools and private schools.

It is happening across the city. The analysis found that 124 of the city's 734 neighborhood elementary schools enrolling more than 62,000 students are at least 20 percent poorer than the rest of the zone.