Unlike the huge, economically and culturally diverse school districts covered in the discussion, most of Pennsylvania 501 school districts are very small and homogeneous. Here, the de facto segregation of non white students into districts with high poverty levels perpetuates and even amplifies the limited opportunities for poor students to improve their circumstances. Where there is only one high school in the district, students cannot choose where to attend. Even middle schools and elementary schools cannot have an economically diverse student body. Everyone knows that schools attempting to deliver quality education to a high poverty population have to address many more serious issues than schools in middle class communities. When 10-20% of the students are limited english proficient and even more are learning disabled, the academic programs in these districts are severely stressed financially. Even if Pennsylvania could address these costs, the culture of poverty and hopelessness continues to drag down each new class of students. Crime, pregnancy, gangs and dropping out are what they live with. In the end these students perpetuate the system of segregation because they can't see past what surrounds them everyday, a society where non-white citizens are overwhelming poor and deprived of opportunity.
Pennsylvania needs to increase the geographic coverage of all districts so that no 50, 60, 90% poverty schools can exist. Non-white (and poor) students need to experience directly the great opportunities our society has to offer them. They will live their days with kids going to college, having dreams, being pushed by their parents and the community to become productive members of society. The middle class kids might even benefit by learning how to live in our increasingly diverse society instead of perpetuating Pennsylvania's spirit of racial and cultural segregation.