A new study from UCLA’s Civil Rights Project shows that New York public schools are the most racially segregated. According to Associated Press “About half of the state’s public school students were from low-income families in 2010 … but the typical black or Latino student attended a school where close to 70 percent of classmates were low-income.”

The study conducted from 1989 to 2010 discovered that many black and Latino students went to school with “virtually no” white classmates. This is because white students go to school with just 30 percent of classmates considered low-income.

 According to the report minority students “perform significantly better” when they attend schools that are more integrated by race and income than those who don’t. The Huffington Post said poor performance among minorities has a lot to due with the fact that high poverty schools have to deal with issues of population, violence and poorly trained teachers.

In the city charter schools aren’t any better. The project considered 73 percent of NYC charter schools to be “apartheid schools” because less than 1 percent of the students were white.

Gary Orfield, one of the authors of the study suggested that if communities had more diversified income a difference would be seen in schools. He said in his 30 years of school research Southern states didn’t even come close to the segregation of New York.

Chris M. Garner (@napturallychris)